Stages of Love
by Five seas
Summary: AU. A doctor sacrifices himself for the sake of his patients. Isane never questioned that, but sometimes she wished that somebody would come and prove her wrong. And Shuuhei was never the one to back down on a challenge. Spinoff from Simply irresistible.
1. Proverbial luck

**I don't own Bleach. **

**A spinoff from my story Simply Irresistible. Hope you like it.**

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**Proverbial luck**

"Fate leads the willing and drags the unwilling"-said the people. She really should've paid more attention to those fortune cookies, but since they'd been a little expired, Isane figured that the fortunes inside were also out of time. For a doctor, it was a pretty reckless way to treat your food, but between her shifts in the ER and the maternity ward, she barely had the time to shop, let alone hang around long enough to contemplate the food stamps. Hell, if she had enough time to sit, it would be a miracle, but people, as if for the sole sake of keeping her from having a life, stabbed each other, got into fights and got pregnant.

Of course, if she'd wanted an easy, predictable job, she would've become an accountant. Or, like her sister, start a job as an OL of a secretary, and let only her boss define her working hours, instead of the entire God damn populace. Her professors back in college told her that doctors often sacrificed themselves to help the others, and if you were not ready to accept that, then you better not even get it started. Why, oh why hadn't she believed them then, when they told her that it would be nerve wrecking and would destroy her personal life?

It's all worth it, she calmed herself, it won't always be like this. Isane imagined how one day she'd be the head of the ward, show the students around, supervise surgeries and have time for herself! Take a day off, go for a drive in the country….Oh, what was she saying, she didn't even have time to comb her hair properly, and her car was gathering dust in the garage because it was less nerve-shattering to take the metro instead of risk the traffic jams.

Such dark thoughts swirled in her head as she was slipping into her overall to prepare for her shift. Once again, she got the night one, and given the fact that it was Friday night, she was bound to end up stitching up the victims of a bar brawl. Since she started her job as an intern in the hospital, she had taken the habit of checking the paper for incoming soccer games, tournaments or every other possible event that could cause a clash of two different sorts of people that might result in a fight. Usually, she ended up working until her legs gave out underneath her. Needless to say that the Nationals were her least favorite of the year.

Just as she was about to get out of the dressing room her phone rang.

"Kiyone?" her younger sister never called her at work. An establishment of sorts, since the girl always seemed to have something to tell her, Isane gave her her schedule and told her when not to call. Could it be that urgent?

"Nee-san, please help me! Somebody has to pick up Ran-san's baby from the doctor!"

Isane sighed. "Kiyone, how many times have I told you not to bring me your strange requests at work? And why can't Matsumoto-san pick her car up herself?" briefly, she remembered how worried the older woman had been the other day when she came for a check up and she had to tell her she was pregnant. Had something happened?

"She's depressed! Hitsugaya-kun's old girlfriend showed up and she regained her memories from the car crash that left her with an amnesia and now she can't look at her husband and baby and it's all Shiro-kun, and she came in the office and she talked to boss and…."

"Kiyone! Is Matsumoto-san alright?"

"I was getting to that! She's sick, and Kyoraku-san had her sent over to her home early. You should've seen her, nee-san, she looked so lifeless! And Kyoraku-san ordered me to start clearing out her schedule for the next week and re-arrange everything so that everything that isn't urgent is delayed until the last minute! Her car has to be picked up tomorrow!"

"And why can't YOU pick it up?" Isane let herself whine a little, knowing full well that she'd end up doing it anyway.

"You know I can't drive. And Ran-san's car has a temper, it needs someone like nee-san!"

"Alright, alright, I'll pick it up." She sighed "Where is the garage?"

Kiyone dictated her the phone number and told her to ask for the address, because Matsumoto hadn't written anything else. Perfect. Sighing, Isane promised her sister she would call immediately and hung up, effectively ignoring the feeling of dread settling in her when she started dialing the other phone number.

* * *

Hisagi Shuuhei loved his job. Putting cars together had been what he'd wanted to do all his life, and he was damn good at it. One of the things that got him ahead of everyone was the fact that he actually enjoyed what he did, and with that, he managed to get others in on his passion. Now he worked with people who he could call friends, got had his hands full of work from dawn to fall, and could listen to all the rock dinosaurs music he wanted and not have anyone tell him anything about it.

And he really liked working on weird things. Like Matsumoto Rangiku's car, who had been practically put together piece by piece thanks to her efforts and a good helper. However, he'd been the one to combine all those things into a real car and he was happy about it. No matter the claw marks on the hood-they gave in character. It was a pity he'd have to part with that baby tomorrow, but at least he'd make her promise to bring her to him when it broke down next time.

He was thinking about that when his phone began to vibrate and he had to stop his MP3 player to take it out. Unidentified number? "Hi, Hisagi speaking!"

Silence. "Um…Hello. I'm calling on behalf of Matsumoto Rangiku, that is…I'm calling about her car…"

The voice was smooth, delicate, and simply feminine; and in spite of the fact that he was well acquainted with womanly voices, this one nearly had him drop the wrench he was holding. In spite of the sputtering.

"Yes?" he prompted, not so much because he cared for the information, but because he wanted to make sure he'd heard the woman properly

"Um…you see…apparently she has fallen ill and I was asked to pick her car up tomorrow."

"Mhm?" gods, it was real! "And…"

"Well…you see…I'm not quite what you'd call a close friend, but there really wasn't anyone else, so I have to, but…I don't know where the garage is, nor what sort of car I'm supposed to pick up."

"Oh, is that all?" he laughed, before dictating her the address "Don't worry about the car, I'll be here the whole day, just ask for me when you get here and I'll take you to it."

"And when are you opening, Hisagi-san?" she asked, and just on cue he heard a sound in the background that sounded like the siren of an ambulance.

Ridiculously pleased with the fact that she'd remembered his name immediately, he told her the schedule. "Alright, I'll have somebody cover for me for an hour around 8." She said, before hastily bidding him goodbye and hanging up.

* * *

The night was damnable. And what made it even more worse was the fact that one of her colleagues fell ill and she had to cover for him in the next day. Meaning that she only had one hour to find the garage, take Matsumoto-san's car to her place, get the metro and come back to work. The only good prospect about this whole thing was that her next shift was Sunday evening, when people usually slept like logs to prepare for their busy week, and with her little sister complaining about a sudden rush of paperwork, nobody could get her to come earlier.

Of course, that didn't mean that her shift was any better. Two bar brawls, one accidental poisoning and one attempt at suicide…was it her or the richer people got, the more miserable they felt? Honestly! By the end of the evening she was crying for some sleep and she was contemplating calling someone to ask them to pick the damned car up for her, but she'd said she'd do it, and (un)luckily, she was a person that kept her promises.

One metro ride later, she was walking down one of the most expensive streets in the city, wondering how the hell could anyone establish a garage there. From what she gathered from Kiyone's chit-chat, she knew that Hitsugaya Toushiro, Matsumoto-san's boyfriend had taken her car to the mechanic, this Hisagi-san she had contacted earlier. If a computer genius took his car for repairs, she reasoned, the place had to be damn expensive and all, but really, how was she supposed to stay focused when she could hardly fight away the impression that she was dreaming. She needed at least a pound of back coffee to stop herself from believing she had fallen into some fairy tale with castles and ladies with exquisite costumes. Luckily for her, most shops were still closed, otherwise the owners might have called the police on her just because she stood outside, looking.

The garage was one of the few things that worked and, while it didn't clash with the rest of the street, it was just like a garage-filled with cars, parts and smell of gasoline. She stood in the doorway, looking around as the people minded their own business, and felt slightly out of place. Why was she standing there, she had to get this over with quickly and go back to work before Noda-san blew the hospital up.

Alright, so this Hisagi guy…he'd sounded ordinary enough on the phone, although his tone had been light and happy, as if he was still laughing at a good joke. Maybe he'd been in a good mood earlier, or perhaps it was just his way of doing things, or maybe he was always enjoying a private joke nobody could understand…Anyway, Isane thought that the voice would probably match the face, and soon enough, her eyes fell on one that could be his.

* * *

Looking up from the engine of the car, Hisagi wondered why on Earth was he doing this again, when he noticed someone walking in through the door. Glancing over at the clock, he decided that it was too early for the person to be the woman who had called him the other day and decided to return to his occupation. Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters" was blaring in his ears and he was on the move. Let's see now…

He worked some more on the engine, until he suddenly became aware of a presence nearby. Not a smell or a sound, but he caught a shot of white with the corner of his eye and, looking up, realized that the person who'd walked in was standing right beside him, looking at him expectantly.

"Loud music is not good for the ears, Hisagi-san." She said, and he nearly keeled over in shock because he realized who it was.

"Are you…the person who was supposed to come for Rangiku-san's car?" he blinked, staring at her curiously.

"Yes. I'm Kotetsu Isane, pleased to meet you." She made a short bow, and then, upon not hearing him do his part of the introduction, straightened out. What a truly strange man! Although he really made her doubt her consciousness right now. He was simply too handsome to go by. And the way he was staring at her…as if he was checking her out. Really, she was still sleeping.

And since she was still sleeping, no need to get all worked up about it, right?

"Cat got your tongue?" she asked, smiling brightly.

What? No sputtering? If it wasn't for the same voice, Hisagi wouldn't have believed that the woman was the same one that called him yesterday. Not that this was an unpleasant surprise, mind. She looked surprisingly good for someone who woke up that early in the morning. "No, although it is a surprise you found me so quickly. Did you ask somebody to direct you to me?"

"No." she answered honestly "You have laughing eyes."

"Laughing eyes?" he mused as he watched her maneuver past him and looked at the car he was working on "I've heard young ladies call them all sorts of names, but never laughing."

"Well, there's a first for everything." She grinned "About that car?"

"Sure…" he said, leading her to…well, Matsumoto's car was actually a mixture of parts from many other cars, starting from the engine of a Volvo to the infamous hood. However, he'd pulled it together, changed the tires for new ones and done one hell of a paintjob. She'd like the engine red, Hisagi thought, but he hoped that Hitsugaya-kun wouldn't go after him with a shovel and an axe. Actually, now that he thought about it…."Couldn't Toushiro come pick Rangiku's car up?"

"Good question." Isane replied, staring at the vehicle suspiciously. Now she knew what her sister meant by a car with a character. How was she supposed to drive this thing?

"Don't you know? I mean, you're her friend, right?"

"Yeah, sort of…" she sighed, running her fingers through her locks "Look, I don't know what happened either. I'm her doctor, and my sister happens to be her secretary. She called me yesterday, told me Matsumoto-san was sick and that somebody had to pick her car up. I never thought about asking whether there weren't any more suitable candidates for the job."

"Cute" he chuckled, and since this was all a dream, she smiled back, before turning towards the car with a slight frown

"Keys?"

"Over here." He saluted, handing them over. Isane nodded, climbed into the car and closed the door carefully. It had been a while, but it was still early-there wouldn't be any traffic jams at this hour. Keys in the ignition, turn this, press gas…Why wasn't it starting? She tried again, repeated and blinked dumbly. The car didn't even choke or wheeze, it was still there. In an uncharacteristically brave attempt, she pressed the peddle harder. No such luck, the car wasn't moving. She turned a pleading gaze towards Hisagi, who surprisingly, looked just as worried as she was.

Carefully turning the car off, she got out as he was making a move towards the hood. For a full five minutes, he inspected the engine, muttering curses while she just looked on. Then, he straightened up and said "I'm stupid, Kotetsu-san, I seem to have misplaced the candles."

"Well…can you put them back on soon?" she asked

"Of course, but it'll take some time." He glanced at her "You're in a hurry. Tell you what, this is my fault, I'll take Rangiku-san's car to her place, you can go."

"No…the doorman knows I'll be bringing it, he might…"

"Ok, then, can you come back after work? Which hospital are you in?"

"Tokyo General, but…"

"When does your shift end?"

"You know…" Isane drawled slowly "If I knew better, I would have thought that you were hitting on me."

He grinned playfully and repeated his question. After she answered him, Hisagi leaned in over her and said in a low voice "Maybe I am. Is that a crime?"

Isane gulped. "Maybe. Doctors aren't the most reliable of dates. Their time is never theirs."

"Why don't YOU tell me all about this over dinner, hmm?" he whispered "We'll take the car back to Rangiku-san's place and I'll show you to a bar where even the flies behave."

"By behave you don't mean get terribly drunk, right? Because I patch up a bunch of those every night."

His laughter rung deliciously through her, sending vibes from her toes through her spine and into her neck and back down in her stomach. "Trust me, it'll be completely safe."

"Ok." She shrugged, told him the time her shift ended and walked out of the garage. It wasn't until she was cramped back into the tube that she realized that this had all been, indeed, very, very real.

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A/N-I hope you enjoy this first chappie. Please leave some reviews so I would know whether I should continue or not.


	2. Gravitation Theory

**Fluff warning...and it's extended throughout the whole fic! If you're not a fan of pink, _get out of here now!_

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Gravitation theory

It's too late to feel mortified about this, Isane thought as she was taking glass out of a cut, one of the many the young man on the cot next to her had suffered when he'd unwillingly crashed his shopping cart in a glass plate section of the supermarket. He'd probably find Matsumoto-san's apartment alone and all she had to do is call the doorman to tell him somebody else was bringing it. Problem solved.

But, even as her shift approached its end, she hadn't called him to tell him that she was bailing. It felt bad, really, as if she was a coward, and cowards didn't face brawl victims and stick-up-the as businessmen, no sir! Cowards didn't go to med school, when they knew they'd be paying for it for the rest of their lives, and not search for a better paid job, no! Cowards didn't stay in a hospital for the sake of their patients, even when they were fighting the desire to punch the guy that was running the hospital in the face.

What difference would one night make? He really looked genuinely interested in her, and hell, there would be a full twenty-four hours until her next shift, it would be a crime if she spent _all_ of them in bed with a pint of ice cream. If things didn't work out, she'd have a whole day to get over it before she headed back to her patients.

She finished up in the ER and went to the common room to catch a few 'z's on the cot, all the while wondering how to pull this off when she clearly didn't have time to change and the clothes she had in her locker were only jeans and sweatshirts. Maybe she could run to the shop nearby and get a new shirt. Maybe something in teal, to go with her eyes. But that would mean no sleep on the cot, and when she walked into the room, she noticed another 'con' in the situation: there was no coffee maker.

Isane liked to think that she was not addicted to caffeine, but when she worked those infernal shifts, she needed some kind of drive. No coffee maker meant no coffee, no coffee meant that she'd have to try and sleep if she didn't want to doze off in the middle of dinner, which meant that she'd have to deal with what she had. Damn it!

"Is Fujioka-san trying to kill us all?" she asked in a sudden burst of crankiness, not only because she might have to break into her stash of energy drinks, but also because their boss was obviously trying to close the hospital.

Her colleagues gave her identical "We know" looks, before drifting back into their reveries, the kind of dreams you dream wide awake when you're tired and missing your caffeine fix. Isane resigned herself and dug out a can of Coca Cola from her locker, drank half of it in one gulp and looked out the window. The afternoon was settling, but the sun was as blazing as ever, veiling the ground into a sea of haze. It was excruciating, this summer, and the more Fujioka Kenji continued with his reign in the hospital, the more desolate she felt.

As many people know, everything is business. Health, education, culture were now valued by income and interest and other silly banking terms Isane didn't understand. Since the people that ran the hospital required that it worked efficiently, a.k.a. brought money, or at least made more than it wasted, a business expert was hired to reduce the excessive expense and enhance the revenue by some serious percentage. On an interview, Fujioka Kenji-san was decided as the one for the job, and he took over starting April that year.

However, what the board of directors didn't know, as well as many others before them, was that you couldn't possibly take a genius in one field and think that he'll do just as well in another. In particular, Fujioka-san was a smart man who knew how to make profit, but hospitals were places where people did not go on their own wish, and generally avoided unless they had to. Therefore, to make up for the money he was being paid (and she was sure he got more in a month than she did in a year), he had to reduce the expense somehow, and to do so he used ways that might have been efficient on secretaries, but not on doctors.

Cut the coffee intake. No more coffee machines, no more coffee. More money saved both through deliveries for the cafeteria and excess of energy. A real gold mine! But wait-thanks to the fact that more doctors were being looted from private hospital groups, the ones that still stayed there had to take on more shifts. Meaning they needed the coffee to go on. More efficiency and less malpractice lawsuits. It didn't take a genius to figure it out, but Fujioka batted it away with the argument that coffee was still available in the cafeteria. Never mind it tasted like ass and had too much water and too little coffee in it.

Isane didn't realize she was musing out loud when she heard one of her colleagues, Yamada Hanatarou, chuckle when hearing her use the word 'ass'. Unsurprisingly, everyone at the room was nodding compassionately, knowing full well what was going on. The hospital, the public service of health in general, was failing because of bureaucrats like Fujioka, who didn't care for anything but profit and fighting the financial crisis. Instead of looking for keeping their precious money, something they couldn't even take in the afterlife, those jerks could've concentrated their energy into something that would make the lives of people better and easier in this difficult time.

Ah, but what was she saying? Everyone was calculating their chances on the work market, they had to find a way to save their own skin, pay off college loans, and then think about other people. She too had to think about an alternative, if Fujioka went ballistic and fired her. She couldn't live off Kiyone's back, especially when she'd been the one of the two to go to college.

The speakers announced the arrival of two ambulances of injured, victims of a car crash. Sighing, Isane gulped down the rest of her drink and headed out, followed by Hanatarou. Maybe she wouldn't make it for the date anyway.

* * *

Hisagi parked the car in the lot and entered the hospital, when, after three calls, Isane hadn't answered. The ER was busy as usually, but there seemed enough doctors around to handle. He went to the reception and asked for Kotetsu-sensei. The cranky nurse that was in charge just gave him a sour look and pointed at a box on her right, not really caring about the fact that she wasn't allowed to let anyone pass the line in the examination rooms.

It didn't really matter. The door was open, showing the spectacle inside for anyone caring to see. A boy, not seven years old, was screaming his head off as Isane was trying to mend a bad crack on his head. His mother, a brand new cast on her left arm, was trying to soothe him, and failed miserably.

"Come on, it's just a few more stitches." Isane begged "Look at the ducky, it'll be done before you can blink!"

"NO! NO! NO! NO!" the brat yelled "I want OUT! Where's dad! I want dad! I want out of here! Mom, make her stop, make her stop!"

"Just another couple, please, put up with it!" his mother pleaded, but her son was absolutely unyielding. Hisagi watched for a few seconds, before stepping in the room.

"Are you into arm wrestle?" he asked the boy, who stopped his wail just long enough to listen to him "I bet I can beat you in it."

"No, you can't." he protested "I have a super strong grip."

"We'll see that." Hisagi said as he got on one knee in front of him and presented his hand, after winking at the dumbfounded Isane. Luckily, she got the drift and finished the stitching while the boy's attention was all into squeezing his miniature nails into Hisagi's hand, in order to cheat his way into winning the game. However, the young man didn't cave in and beat him.

"Not fair!" he wailed "I'm injured. Mom, tell that doctor to tell him so! And don't even try to come near me with that needle."

"No need, it's done." Isane replied, before sterilizing her tools and scribbling a prescription for anti-septic drugs.

"Don't I get to win when I'm sick?" the boy asked crankily.

"Serves you right for making a problem for your mother and doctor. We'll have a rematch when you're better." Hisagi said, as he followed Isane out of the examination room. As they crossed the corridor, he told her: "I'm all set."

"I'm not. Go without me." She answered, hastily pulling a clean pair of gloves out of a cupboard "There are at least three more people and…"

"I'll handle this one, Isane-san." Hanatarou yelled as he slipped into one of the other rooms "You better go now, Fujioka-san will swindle you out of your extra pay if he catches you after work hours here."

Isane opened her mouth to reply, but her colleague had already disappeared behind the curtain. She turned to meet the grin of a terribly amused Hisagi. What to do, what to do? Get out of the hallway, for starters?

"Five minutes." She blurted and without waiting for a response, dashed for the dressing room.

* * *

That woman was punctual to a fault, he thought amusedly as he watched her run out of the hospital and towards the car, her green sweatshirt slightly ajar from haste. Her hair was a mess from her efforts to fix it up with water, and that one lock he'd seen braided the morning had become undone. Her face was flushed and she greeted him with a hastily whispered "Hi again" and a whiff of freshness from her clothes. Or was it just him? Had he ever been so spontaneously attracted to anyone before? Just because of her voice.

Her embarrassment lasted just about long enough for them to deliver the car and then head for the bar. Whether because she was in motion again, or they were not confined in their seats, she seemed to liven up and actually mustered enough courage to ask him where they were headed to.

"I promise that there wouldn't be a brawl." Hisagi replied "Trust me, I've been going there since I was 15, there wasn't a single time a fight broke out."

"That's a relief. I mean…it's good to hear that people take care of their health when they go out drinking…that is…ugh…"

"I got it." he grinned at her. She really was like a mouse sometimes, only she was so much more interesting. Amusing, yes, but strangely energetic. She couldn't stay in one place, it was absolutely impossible for her. Even when they settled on the bar of one of his favorite places in town, she seemed to constantly swing back and fro on the chair, her eyes taking in everything around her excitedly.

They ordered, him a light beer, she a gin and tonic with a strong squeeze of lemon. Luckily, those drinks didn't go down quickly-conversation picked up fast, starting from her asking him if working on cars was something he'd wanted to do all his life, to which he retorted with a similar question about her and medicine. For a while, they discussed their professions, mostly the benefits of the latter, and said little about the inconveniences.

"Medicine and mechanics are in fact very similar." Hisagi noted at some point "Both attract people who want to know how things work, and both require precision. You can't have disproportion because it's artistic."

"That's true. Kiyone-chan says that Matsumoto-san said that her car was a baby and you were the doctor that healed it." Isane retorted, but even though he laughed at it, a little doubt whether he was really having fun with her clouded her good mood. "Psychologists also share that motive…"

"Ah, yes. But you don't need a Ph.D. to be a mechanic-you guys have it harder." He finished her thought seamlessly, getting her to look at him incredulously.

"But who gets the most money in the end?" She asked, and pointed at him with her glass

"Cheers to disproportioned interests." He said, clinking his mug with hers.

When they got around to their second round, the sun had began setting, but they hadn't even gotten started. "So other than pulling people together, Kotetsu-san, what do you do?" he asked "Or you prefer to be in the hospital 24/7?"

"Of course not." She said, signing the bartender to put a little more soda in her drink "I also go home. Otherwise, my sister will broadcast a search bulletin in the police. She's friends with the boys from the 7th division, so she's pretty much capable of getting that done in no time."

"The police station is on her speed dial? Is she a supermodel or something?" Hisagi joked

"No, but you know, Matsumoto-san is something of a celebrity of her own, unique kind." Isane explained "Kiyone's really lucky to be able to work for her. Not many people would encourage her to be herself at work."

"Matsumoto-san really struck me as a formidable person." Hisagi nodded "And Hitsugaya-kun looked really happy with her. Can you believe, when he brought her car, he was actually beaming?! For all these years I've known him, he's never really smiled."

"She has this effect on people." Isane said, her mood darkening slightly when she remembered why Rangiku-san had come to her a few days ago. She hadn't gathered much from Kiyone about her illness, but from what she heard, Hitsugaya wasn't with her, and in her condition, that could be very bad for the baby. But of course, she couldn't say her suspicions out loud, could she? "Sometimes, it feels like she has her own gravitation-she attracts people around herself and makes them interact."

This was the best place to say that with a rack like hers, Rangiku probably did have her own gravitation, but Hisagi knew better than to say something like that in front of a lady. Especially when he was on a date with that lady.

* * *

Around nine, a large group of men entered the bar, and Hisagi wondered if he could leave her for a few moments to say hi to them. However, as he was about to open his mouth, they looked in their direction, Isane spotted them and waved her hand friendlily at them. To Hisagi's bewilderment, Iba, Ikkaku and Yumichika let out simultaneous "Isane-chan!"s and came over to greet her, and _then_ noticed him.

"Oh, hi Shuuhei, didn't see you there." His eyes nearly budged out of his head. Ikkaku never, ever finished the word. For a second, he wondered if his drinking buddies were hitting on his date, when he realized that even Yumichika was speaking to her with a pointed politeness. And then, as Iba finally decided to acknowledge him, he remembered what she'd said a while ago-her sister was friends with the 7th police division.

They talked for a while, before the guys drifted off to their favorite table, and telling Isane that if she ever got bored with "this guy", she could always join them. Lovely.

"So, I guess I shouldn't be surprised." Hisagi said "You did say your sister was friends with the police."

"Yeah, but that's not how I met them." She replied, taking a sip from her drink "One of Rangiku-san's stalkers had decided to break into her office last autumn and they had come to take care of him. He didn't have a bomb like he was threatening to, but carried a knife, and when they apprehended him, Kiyone called me to take care of them. They've been regulars ever since."

"You should get a medal for that. Ikkaku always mended his wounds himself." Hisagi pointed out, more amused than ever. Gravitation indeed. It felt like Rangiku-san made the world spin.

"I never would've guessed they were your friends." She said "Apparently our theory has some foundation."

"Maybe. But how did your sister come to meet Rangiku-san?"

"After a disappointing number of failed job interviews. And how did you meat Hitsugaya-kun?"

"A college mate of his was getting tattoos at the same place I got mine." He said, a little embarrassed that he was drawing attention to the 69 on his cheek. "Although it was an almost failure, he asked me to look at his car and we sorta kept meeting as our businesses grew. He's one of my most loyal customers and I hope…"

The sentence was interrupted by loud, arguing voices. Both turned their heads at the same time to look at the two men shouting at each other at the other end of the bar. Apparently, one of them had been staring too long at the girlfriend of the other, and they were nearly ready to whip out their fists. The bar tender was trying to break them apart, or at least make them take their argument outside, but it didn't take a genius to figure out what would happen soon.

Isane was faster than Hisagi. As the jealous boyfriend grabbed the other man by the collar and pulled him up angrily, her hand seized him by the wrist and weighted it down. A pair of pissed off eyes stared at her, but she didn't even flinch.

"Let go, onna." The boyfriend growled "This isn't your business."

"I will. But before you end up spending the night in detention…" she said quickly, seeing Yumichika, Iba and Ikkaku get up from their table to get to her "Would your girlfriend like you to sink to his level?" swiftly, she let go and stepped away, a little towards her seat, back to Hisagi. She was glad to see that after a little hesitation, the man obeyed and went back to his table. The other guy turned around to give her a bloodshot glance, but just as he was about to say something snaky, Isane felt a strong hand wrap around her shoulders and felt Hisagi whispered into her ear:

"Let's get out of here." And gave the man a warning glance before dragging her out of the bar.

Isane didn't dare say anything until they were a safe distance from the bar, before she realized that Hisagi wasn't really with her. His eyes were fixed forward, and his pace was wide, as if he wanted to get away from something he didn't like.

Wriggling herself free from his grasp, she mumbled:

"I apologize."

Hisagi stopped in mid pace, as if his ears had registered something wrong, before looking down at her: "Huh? What?"

"I apologize. I got out of my way and embarrassed you. I truly didn't mean to."

"Embarrass? Me?" he'd been more concerned to get her away from the bar before that guy tried to do something funny "Why would you think you embarrassed me?"

"Well…" She sighed, as they resumed their walk "You're frequenting that bar, right? Wouldn't people pick on you when they have seen your date go and stand in the middle of two people who are about to fight?"

"No. Not in a bad way, anyway." Hisagi said, smiling slightly "It's alright, Kotetsu-san. I should be apologizing. I promised that there wouldn't be any brawls tonight."

"There weren't." she said

"Thanks to you." His smile widened slightly, and she frowned slightly.

"Why's that grin? Perhaps you're wondering whether I would've gotten away fast enough if they'd decided to fight anyway?" She asked cheekily

"If they started to fight, I'd have carried you away from that bar as fast as I could. That's what guys do for their dates, right?" Hisagi said, bending slightly so that their eyes were on the same level.

"That's….umm….that's right, I guess." She said, regressing quickly "Of course."

"I was only smiling because you referred to yourself as my date, Kotetsu-san. I was a little worried that you were too afraid to cool down and enjoy the evening."

"I…ugh…of course, I mean, that's great…" she said, looking around "Umm…my place is this way, if I take the tube I'll be there in 15…"

"Can I walk you there?" as she seemed to hesitate, he added "I just want to make sure that you get home in one piece."

"Of course…" she stammered "I never doubted that…"

"Then shall we?" he offered his hand to her and she, giddily, accepted.

While they were walking towards the subway, she became strangely quiet and absorbed into herself. As they were about to mount the train, he asked: "Are you worried about that guy? I looked behind us, he's not following."

"Huh?" it was her turn to be surprised "Oh, no, not at all!" She insisted when he repeated his question "That's not it, not it at all!"

"You seemed pretty preoccupied by it." Hisagi said, whilst they took a seat "Did something else happen?"

"No. Yes. No. I…I just…." Isane hesitated

"Yes?" he prompted

"I'm just still convincing myself that this is all real." She blushed "I've just…it's been a while since I last went on a date, Hisagi-san. You're probably going to laugh, but this morning I was so sleepy I actually thought I was dreaming when I came to the garage, and acted as if I was in a dream. I'm actually very difficult to open up. I never expected that you were real, or that you'd really come and take me to a drink. Not that you are nothing if not real…I just…"

"I see." He nodded, arching a smile "If this makes you feel better, Kotetsu-san, I also acted a little unlike myself today. Usually, I'm more reserved towards women. You, however, have a way to make me feel comfortable in your company."

Her lips winged up slightly. "Because I'm a doctor?"

"Because of your voice." He replied, leaning in slightly "The first thing I notice about a woman is her voice, as strange as this may seem."

"That is a little unusual." Isane said, bending back gently "How ever did you accomplish that?"

Hisagi's eyes darkened slightly "I spent two years of my life blind."

The train screeched into a halt, and Isane realized that they were nearing her stop. She said that to her companion, who got up and quickly offered her a hand up, before making their way to the doors. Once outside, he proceeded to explain. "It wasn't a serious thing, but when I was a kid, I was diagnosed with a tumor in my frontal lobe, and from there it had affected my sight."

"Tumors are everything, but never not serious, Hisagi-san." She chided him "And the surgical intervention is very dangerous. It could've been fatal!"

"I know." He nodded "Not then, though. I thought that if I couldn't see, nothing else would matter. To me, I was so badly off, that I could only get better from then. Perhaps it was because of that, but I was lucky enough to pull through. But I guess you've already figured it out."

"You're sure one of the lucky ones." She nodded "Some children don't make it. I used to…I mean, a person I knew was studying to be a neurosurgeon and he was absolutely freaked when he had to assist on an intervention. He cried with relief when the kid got better."

"I cried with relief too." Hisagi said, not at all ashamed to admit it "Though I spent a year in rehab afterwards, and for a while afterwards, all I could wear outside were my sunglasses. When I was home free, I swore I wouldn't waste my life, and I fancy I didn't…well, with small exceptions, that is…" he laughed ,touching his tattoo "Anyway, for a while, I could only rely on sound, touch, scent and taste. The sound of a person's voice was probably the first impression I got from them, along with their scent, and afterwards, that habit didn't die out. It saved me from making a few bad decisions in the past."

"You must've been really successful with the ladies…" Isane mused

"I was." He replied "Of course, there were bad times, but looks didn't fool me as much as they would've. You shouldn't be fazed by my good looks and charming personality, Kotetsu-san. Your voice captivated me on the first 'umm'."

"Aren't you a funny one." She laughed as she stopped in front of her apartment complex "I'm here."

"Nice place." Hisagi noted, not really making a move to say goodbye. Neither did she.

"I should go now…" she mumbled, loosening her grip on his hand "Thank you for the wonderful night, Hisagi-san."

"I won't believe it until you agree that I make up for my broken promise tonight." He said, taking her hand again "Will you?"

Isane flushed as old feelings and new sensations fought for dominance. She remembered how bitter she'd been last time, how difficult it had been to pretend for weeks at a time that the pain didn't exist, how often she broke down in front of her pillow when she tried to convince herself she was fine, and how desolate everything had seemed…She'd been cornered by her oath to help people, working hours and love.

"Can I be honest?" he nodded slowly "I had a wonderful time. No, I…had the best time I've ever had. Honest. But…like I said, my time isn't really mine, and I have to give 110% at my patients. I sometimes don't have the energy and care to put into dating, and I really, really don't want to disappoint you."

"You haven't disappointed me so far." He assured her

"I know. But later…I don't want you to regret wasting your time with me."

"We'll see." He smiled "How about we meet up for coffee sometime, take things easy, one step at a time?"

She was running short on air. Desperate, she let go and hurried into the building, shouting over her shoulder: "Yes, yes, definitely. Goodnight." She paused, ran back to him, hesitated, gave him a brief, awkward hug, and before he could react ran back inside.

For a while, he stood outside, staring at the place she'd disappeared at incredulously. And then he laughed. For the first time in a while, he laughed.

* * *


	3. Stages of love: Denial

**Stages of love: Denial**

She was restless that night. Not particularly because of what had happened, of course, but more because Hisagi had said that they would meet again.

Before, the night hours were something Isane cherished. With the years passing, and the time she'd spent doubled over her textbooks in college, their value had slowly diminished until day and night had blended into one huge schedule. Lately, she'd been sleeping five-minute cat naps in her coffee (pardon, water breaks), and that was just about all the rest she could get.

Isane rolled out of bed and turned on the lights with a sigh. It was raining hard outside, the perfect time to hide under the covers and sleep, but somehow, she didn't want to hide right now. She had questions and she needed the answers badly. One of her faults, perhaps.

A hug?! Good lord, she had a feeling that he would hate her forever for such a childish gesture. But if he didn't, it wouldn't have surprised her, at all. The night, hell, those entire twenty-four hours had been surreal. Amazing, but surreal. No man had ever but given her a second glance, let alone getting so impossibly sweet just because he claimed she had a beautiful voice. Isane opened her mouth and attempted to sing a simple "do, re, mi" scale, then backwards, then tried it on another octave, trying to find out what was so special about it. She personally never saw anything in it. Maybe it was just him. Or maybe he was just playing smooth.

That would've been nasty, really, but not wholly unsurprising. Actually, what could she expect? She didn't know. Point was, if he was one of those guys that are just trying to get into your panties, that would've been sad, she would've been unhappy, but it wouldn't have pained her so much because deep down, she knew that it was normal. She would have expected it. But if he was, why would he be more interested in talking to her, and not getting her drunk? Why not take her to a dingy bar, near one of those love motels, and then take their festivities upstairs? Why would her honestly tell her he liked her voice and that it was the thing that attracted him to her, and not her, say, exotic hair?

Not that she didn't believe that he could've told her the truth-he'd gone through a life-survival surgery when he had been young, that had restored his sight, but had made him appreciate things even more for what they are, and not what they look like. The thing was, she really couldn't imagine what kind of luck she had to have such a great guy to pick her of all people.

That's right, pick her. Because she could not have been picked. Because there were much better choices from whom to be picked. Like Ryuujiro, and…STOP! She honestly had to stop. She was getting ridiculous.

Maybe he just wanted to be friends. Maybe he often went out alone with girls and called it a date for convenience's sake, but it was plain clear that he was probably looking for friends. Next time, they would go out with everyone. That seemed like a safe way of thinking.

Standing up, Isane inspected her features in her mirror, wondering what could he possibly find in such a plain woman anyways? Nothing, as far as she could tell. She'd fleshed out rather late, just like her sister, but Kiyone got points because of her petite frame and naturally blond hair made her look like a pixie, thus charming the men around her before she even opened her mouth. Isane, on the other hand, was too tall, thus her small chest and wide hips made her look disproportional. She turned around to look at herself better. Well, there were ways she could dress in a way to erase the small differences in her silhouette, but she neither had the time, nor the energy to go shop for clothes for her figure.

Panicking suddenly, she dashed for her wardrobe, remembering that he had said there would be a second date. She had to be prepared. She absolutely had to…

* * *

Hisagi, on the other hand, slept like a baby. To his surprise, because since the…Party a few months back, he hadn't really been sleeping well, thanks to the nightmares that visited him regularly. He found himself well-rested, calm, and refreshed. The date with Kotetsu-san, apparently, had been just what he needed. Finally, he understood why his doctor looked so dumbfounded when he told him last time that he hadn't gone out since…the treatment started.

"_How can you expect me to go on a date with any woman, sensei?"_ he had asked, stunned _"I mean, it's not like I could keep this from her, and nobody would want to go out with a person like me."_

"_Hisagi-san, I'm not talking about a one-night stand here."_ He had stated_ "Of course, you need to be responsible and careful, but in your condition, you need the support of important people. Why are you distancing yourself from your friends? Why are you not talking with your family about this?" _

"_Sensei, it's too early. You know this yourself-a couple of months, and I'll be home free…"_

"_Or condemned. You have to prepare yourself for both options, Hisagi-san."_

"_I know, I just…I went through so much on my own. Telling my folks now would unnecessarily upset them, and I don't want them to have their hair turn white if it's a false alarm. If….if it isn't so, I will tell them, of course, but until then I want to save the calamity for myself. As for my friends, they know enough as it is, I don't want them going off thinking that I can't handle this."_

_  
"And what if something happens while we are waiting? What if you get hurt, and need help, and there is nobody to inform the people around you of your needs? Your pride will be the death of you, I swear it!"_

"_It's not pride. What's so wrong in trying not to burden the people around me?"  
_

"_The thing is that you are depriving yourself from a support you will need, and you need to brace yourself before it is too late."_

"_What do you suggest I do? I can't possibly go to my friends now, and I can't hook up with some woman, thinking that we might have to break it off in a two months."_

_  
"And what about new friendships? Haven't you considered this?"_

"_I can't think about this right now."_ That's what he had said back then, but he'd never expected to find anyone as appealing as Kotetsu Isane was.

That girl….she didn't even know how wonderful she was, how seductive she was. They didn't know each other for more than a day and he was already looking forward to seeing more of her. She said what she thought, but wasn't wholly unabashed or calloused. He had a feeling that she would cry at a silly movie, in spite of the fact that she spent a great deal of her time patching people up and diagnosing diseases. He couldn't lie to himself, he'd freaked out when she actually went in between those two drunkards last night, but a part of him had been relieved that she'd managed to stop the brawl before it spread and caught him in it. He might have hurt himself, and then….

He shuddered. It wouldn't be long before he could breathe normally again, but until then, he would have to deal with the suspense, the fear, the lack of sleep. Miraculously, she had cured him of one, but the rest?

Hisagi sighed, got out of bed and opened a window. Now the more important thing was whether he could do this. Not that he didn't have respect for girls, or treated them like items, or any of the things men are generally hated for, but if he had to be honest, he'd never had a girl friend. Like, as in a good friend who just happens to be a girl. Whenever he'd been in one of those 'friends with benefits' relationships, it had been more about the benefits and less about the friends. He didn't underestimate one or the other-he had a great time with the guys, but he never imagined having a relationship like that with a girl.

Maybe that was the cause of his current predicament. During the last four months, he had promptly turned his back on bars and partying and women, in the hopes of sparing himself the extra guilt trip he might have after a while. And during this temporary celibacy, he had reached the conclusion that those past relationships ended badly because he never really tried understanding the girls. He'd just assumed that they were also looking for a short, non-engaging relationship.

That was why this whole thing with Kotoko happened. If he'd just tried figuring her out, instead of shrugging her off, he would've spared himself all this.

_And would have never met Kotetsu-san…_

But even if he did, he wouldn't have gone out with her. He was never unfaithful, that was for sure. Now, he though he knew better, and would try not to make the same mistakes.

Hisagi glanced at his watch. It was pretty early, but maybe she had already woken up. They wouldn't be able to meet today, but he could call her to pick a date for their next da…meeting. They would meet, not date. At least for now. Not until he got all his results and knew he was a 110% clear. Then, if things were fine, they would go on, nice and easy, one step at a time like he'd told her they would. If they weren't…well, he could rely to her as a _friend_.

And friends called at whatever time they chose to, he reasoned as he picked up his phone to call her. She picked up almost immediately.

"Hello?"

"You sound tired, Kotetsu-san." He noted

"Hisagi-san? No, I'm fine, I just got up, actually."

"I didn't wake you up, did I?"

"Not at all. What can I do for you?" she asked cheerfully

"Oh, nothing…I was just wondering, if you remember seeing my watch anywhere." He lied quickly

"Your watch?" she repeated, perplexed

"Yeah, I can't seem to find it anywhere, and since I have the habit of taking it off when I'm drinking and I was wondering if you remember me leaving it on the bar."

"Err…I don't know, really, umm…I don't think so. But I have some work in that district anyway today, I can go ask in the bar if they've found it."

"No, no, that's alright." He smiled "So…how are your shifts coming up to be?"

"They're all nights from Sunday through Wednesday. I'll probably have to stay until nine, while I wait for a change of shift."

"So…basically, you won't be able to sleep until Thursday? And after that?"

"A full twenty four hour shift on Friday. And the soccer nationals are starting." She groaned comically "I'll be neck deep with work, and I won't hear anything but stories about blind judges."

He chuckled "I'll try to keep the guys from beating each other up."

"Thanks, in advance."

"So, then you'll only have free time this morning. Wanna meet over coffee?" he asked, hoping that he didn't sound too hopeful.

"Err…I have something to do, but…sure, why not."

"Cool. Call me when you are free. I may call the guys, we can all have lunch together."

"Sure." She chirped "Then I'll be off. Good bye, Hisagi-san."

"Good bye, Isane-san." He said, not noting the switch until he hung up.

* * *

Isane wiped her brow, before directing her eyes towards her room. The mess there was worse than ever, courtesy to her sudden desire to clear out her wardrobe after she discovered that she'd somehow gotten the idea that brown and white were the new black. "This is a disaster." She stated, before grabbing clothes without looking at them and threw them back inside. She REALLY didn't have time for this.

Her midnight search through her wardrobe hadn't done much but to confirm the obvious-she was a fashion disaster. It wouldn't have been so horrible if she had one or two decent things to wear, but this was absolutely hopeless. Sighing, she looked down at the worn shirtdress she was wearing, and then with a sudden inspiration grabbed her purse and marched out of the room. She would have to buy herself new clothes sooner or later, so why not do it sooner rather than later? It would keep her mind from wondering why he suggested lunch with friends just after coffee for the two of them. Why was he suddenly switching gears? Didn't he know what he want?

_Aagh! Shut up!_

* * *

For the next week or so, Hisagi was everywhere. And even if someone accused her of overreacting, it would have taken one look at him to prove him wrong.

Both their schedules were hard, but since he was one of the top mechanics in the garage, he said, it was easier for him to be flexible. While she was busy taking shifts in the ER and the gynecological ward, he would sometimes drop by to have coffee with her in the hospital bar, or bring her the said drink straight in the office (provided she was not with a patient). Her colleagues, unaccustomed to seeing Isane get so much attention, often came by to observe them for a few minutes, then brushed it off. She blended with the woodwork so much that the change was only doing her good.

Their favorite place soon became the garden. When he would come, he would take one of the benches and prank her phone to tell her he was there. She would come soon, thank him for the coffee, give him money for it when he let her, and they would talk and talk and talk.

On what themes? What could a gynecologist and a mechanic possible talk about? Nothing job related, at least. Since Isane had started seeing Matsumoto Rangiku because of her pregnancy, she couldn't share this knowledge with Hisagi, as he was a friend of Hitsugaya Toushiro, the baby's father of whom Rangiku-san stubbornly refused to talk about. Isane didn't know how much Hisagi-san knew, and he on his part seemed absolutely disinterested in these affairs. They didn't speak about their jobs. Why should they, when there were so many interesting themes?

They moved from the trivial (traditional?) favorite movies, foods, people, through the equally trivial (and expected?) least favorite lists, to more unconventional (personal?) things like the weirdest vacation they'd had, worst bet, creepiest occurrence. In between these more personal-related things, there were talks about everything and anything-soap operas, stem cells, embarrassing things they'd seen on TV, activists who fought for everything and won nothing, the economy crisis, China, Godzilla, eighties movies, the power rangers, and, their favorite, Harry Potter vs. Pippi Longstocking, a.k.a. 'Is my childhood better than the one kids nowadays are having?'.

She thought that the murder of anything living is sacrilegious, but didn't agree with people protesting against everything because they're full of hot air. She also said that she felt sad for Godzilla, liked 'Some Kind of Wonderful' and thought that children were given better conditions to live in nowadays. He hated the power rangers, thought that Godzilla was full of shit, and it had taken him one look at 'Teen Witch' to know that movies about 'finding yourself' were useless because you virtually never stop looking. He also thought that children today are poisoned with badly drawn cartoons, genetically engineered foods and misinterpreted messages.

He was everywhere, including under her skin. When they argued, it was easy for him to get there and piss her off, but not in a generally bad way. They agreed, they fought. That's what friends are for.

Of course she liked him. He was easy to like, especially when he became so carefree and relaxed as he was around her. By the end of the week, Isane didn't even remember the tension she felt at first, that fear that he might like her as a woman. Now, when they were friends, so obviously easy in each other's company, there was no guessing. She could be friends with people. She could deal with it. She didn't have to ask herself constantly whether it was ok with him for her to say this and that, because friends take on both the good and the bad in the person. Friendship feeds off arguments. It was easier for both to be themselves when they didn't ask that ever persistent 'Why?' when they were together.

"Alright, so here comes a hard one…" he started once "It's a question I ask people all the time…what do you think of the 'Care Bears'?"

"The what?"

"Come on, you couldn't have not heard about them!"

"I have, but I'm surprised a guy can say those two words without holding a crucifix and a handful of garlic."

"Ha-ha. So, what do you think?"

"Is this a question you ask every girl you meet?"

"No. It's actually something I discuss with Yumi a lot." He explained "He's turning this into a horrid good vs. reformed evil debate, and I need some way to shut him up, somehow!"

"And you're asking me because you think I have an idea that is slightly more original than anything you've ever heard before? I think they're cute."

"I think they're girly." He groaned "And Yumi is constantly telling me that that's not the point! He says that it is about someone realizing the wrong in his ways, and redeeming himself through admitting his mistakes."

"He has a point."

"But I don't get what a bunch of girlie bears have to do with any of that?" he exclaimed

"Maybe next time…" She said, after a brief thought "You can have in mind that they are a symbol of those emotions that drive him to admit his mistakes. An embodiment of some sorts."

"Will you spell that for me?"

"Embodiment?"

"Symbol. Is it written with a b or a v?"

"A b." she smiled, before taking a sip from her coffee

"You're not offended?" Hisagi asked, after a brief silence

"Why should I be?"

"For saying they're girlie. I don't say it in front of Yumi because I know he'll flip."

"Hisagi-san, you may not have noticed it, but I'm a girl…"

"I have."

"So, if I say something is cute, doesn't that make it a girlie choice?" she waited for him to nod "I don't think I should get offended because someone points out that my gender generally likes these sorts of things."

"Well said." Hisagi nodded, although there seemed to be something else he had to say…and didn't.

He was everywhere, and suddenly, he was gone.

It took her exactly twenty-four hours to realize how delusional she had been all along.

* * *

A/N-Oooops...this fic just made a wrong turn...hmm


	4. Love can move you

**Love can move you**

The first day, she didn't pay attention to his absence. It was the 'Anti-SDT' day in the ward, a time for free health lectures, giving away condoms, explaining to everyone who came whatever they wanted to know, free examinations and signing up for regular check-ups in the hospital. It was busy, and it was embarrassing, especially when she was forced to assist in a lecture to a class of students who had been gathered somehow by their teachers to come to hear about AIDS and syphilis and herpes, to talk to them about the not-so-pleasant consequences of unprotected sex. It was trying to answer their sometimes lewd questions and then hand them over condoms without her mask falling off, and that night she'd slept like a log thanks to the exhaustion that had gathered up from that day.

The second, Isane noticed his absence because she had been thinking about the previous day and some things she wanted to say to prove her theory that children nowadays are considerate. But she let it pass.

The third, she gathered up enough courage to call in the garage, but it had been wasted by the time they told her he wasn't there, so she never got to ask why or would he be coming back. It was enough to turn her off from calling Hisagi on his cell, too. Or almost…enough to leave him a message.

At first she thought that he was just busy, and that he would come. Or call. Or leave a message. Either way, she couldn't look for him, both for lack of time and reason. However, when Kiyone found out that fact, she flipped the board.

"He hasn't come around since last Tuesday?" she shrieked

"Kiyone! Didn't I tell you to keep it down? I don't want the neighbors coming here to complain again!"

"But you haven't seen him since last Tuesday? It's been nearly a week!"

"I can count."

"Nee-san…" she said sternly "Haven't you called him? Haven't you tried finding out what happened to him? What if he's bleeding on the floor right now because he had a brain hemorrhage?"

"Just because we haven't met doesn't mean that anything's happened to him. And he's not on the list of candidates for a brain hemorrhage."

"Have you checked?"

"Kiyone, I'm a doctor. And he's a strong, healthy young man. He's not a professional sports player or been into any accidents that require an intervention lately, he's fine. He just doesn't call."

"And why don't you call?"

"I have. But…he didn't pick up. So I left a message."

"A message?"

"Yes, a message. You know them. Hi, how are you doing, wanna meet for lunch? He hasn't called, so maybe he has personal reasons."

"His voice mail turned on, then his phone was on. His batter didn't fall, or his phone-die, he just didn't pick up!"

"Maybe he's out of town and he forgot it. Maybe he has some problems he doesn't want to talk about. Come on, Kiyone, we were talking nearly every day, he'll come when he wants."

"You really don't take this seriously, nee-san." Kiyone complained, popping herself on the couch while Isane sat on the other side of it "I've been waiting for you to finally get a love life and you're not even putting up an effort into retaining it."

"I'd hardly call a few meetings over coffee a date."

"But the first time it was a date! You told me yourself! The air was sizzling with tension, he was staring at you like you were something delicious to eat, every word that came out of his mouth sounded like a 'come hither'…"

"That's not what I said."

"Nee-san, how can a guy possibly come see you every day for an entire week, have coffee with you, find ways to get out of work, just for some small talk because you obviously don't have the time to go out on a proper date with him, and suddenly, he just disappears without a trace. Don't you think that's a little weird? Maybe he thought that it's not worth his time!"

"Or maybe his mother got sick. Kiyone, there is no way to know. And if he's decided that he doesn't want to see me, why should I care about it? I've had fun talking to him, we did nice as friends, but it's never gone further than that. End of story!"

"Don't you want to know what you did wrong? What turned him away? Don't you want to stop the same thing from happening again? It's Ryuujiro all over again! You give up so easily even though it could've been something beautiful!"

"I can't life off what ifs, Kiyone-chan." Isane said soothingly, ignoring the slight pang at the mention of _his_ name "And Ryuujiro made his choice. I couldn't come with him to Osaka, neither could I ask him to stay with me here. Hisagi-san is the same. We're just two friends-he's not obliged to answer to me when we haven't met for a while."

"Maybe you think he doesn't. But don't tell me that you don't feel betrayed." Kiyone huffed, getting off the couch and storming out of the room.

Isane didn't reply. Of course, she felt betrayed. Of course she had thought about it. Of course she was saddened a little. But what did any of this had to do with anything? Somewhere in the back of her mind, she imagined Tina Turner sing _"What's love got to do with it, got to do with it? What's love, but a secondary emotion?"_ Once, she had had the opportunity to find out herself how true this was.

Ryuujiro had been a neurology intern. Being two years older than her, he had more responsibilities, and she, as the one with the more freedom, manipulated her schedule so that they could be together. She had thought it wasn't a big deal, but then it turned out that it slowed her internship with an year, an year in which her boyfriend had become a valuable cadre, sought by many, and finally snatched by the Ishida Group. He got assigned in a private hospital in Osaka, but going there meant that he would have to leave his entire life in Tokyo behind, including Isane. She didn't have enough experience to follow him there, and she couldn't ask him to stay either.

What had happened in the end? Love had only weighed her down and in the end, all the sacrifices she had made for it turned out to be what killed it. What could she do now? How different would this love be from the last one?

And then she remembered how horrible she'd felt when he first left. The first few days, she'd wondered if things would've been different if she fought a little more, if she tried harder, if she'd seen it coming and prepared? Every relationship called for compromise, right? Taking a snappy decision, she took the phone and called Hanatarou to ask him to cover for her in the hospital that night.

* * *

In truth, Hisagi's condition had been simple. But since things with him were never simple, it had taken a week for him to relax enough to walk out to take a breath of air. And even then he was covered with a thick jacket and a scarf, even though it was excruciatingly hot outside. But he didn't dare let his guard drop. It was too much of a fright for him to handle. Summer wasn't a time for him to catch a cold, he knew. If this was a sign, he was toast!

He supposed he needed to call the guys to tell them he was alive…and Isane-san too. What was she thinking right now? Was she mad with him for leaving their latest discussion open? Did she even think that they were friends anymore? What if she got so angry with him that…

His train of thought was interrupted when he reached his apartment complex and noticed a lone figure standing in front of the bells, looking undecided. It took him exactly three seconds to recognize Isane, and his face lit up with a twenty watt grin. Quickly, he took off the jacket and scarf and marched towards her, the grin not leaving his mug even when he walked on her from behind and whispered: "Looking for someone, doll?" in her ear. To his content, she leapt up and whirled around at warp speed.

"Hisagi-san?" Isane's voice sounded a little squeakier than usual, but that was understandable "I was just…"

"Passing by." He finished for her.

"No." She said quickly, her expression quizzical "I was actually looking for you."

"That's the first time I hear this from a girl." Shuuhei laughed, bracing his hands on his hips "And why is that?"

"Well…" she fumbled with the bag in her hands and he could swear he smelled pepperoni and mushroom pizza there "I…want to sell my car, and wanted to ask you for your…umm…opinion on the matter…because…well…you're the only one I know who can really give an opinion about this sort of things."

"Ooh…" he drawled

"So…will you…umm help me?"

"That depends. Is that pizza in the bag my payment?" he asked

"That depends." She grinned "Do you take payment in kind?"

Hisagi laughed roguishly, opening the front door and winked coyly at her "Step into my office, please." After climbing the three flights of stairs to his floor, struggling with the locks and leading her inside, he asked. "I had a cold."

"Huh?" she blinked

"I had a cold." He repeated "That's why you're here, right? To see why I didn't show up for such a long time. I didn't show up because I had a cold."

"What did you take for it?" she frowned "Oh, I mean…that's not…what I had in mind…I knew that you had some good reason not to show u….I mean, you're not obliged to report to me every day as if I'm some sort of…err…I mean…" Isane sighed "Are you feeling better?"

"Obviously. I wouldn't have invited you if there was a risk of infection." He started to laugh at his own joke, but he cut himself off abruptly as he realized the implication he'd just made. Ironic…

"Some diseases exist without being contagious." She said "Are you completely cured? Did you have a full cycle of drugs?"

"I'm a more of my own doctor, Isane-san." He smiled "I had a lot of warm liquids and rest on bed, and didn't challenge my stomach when I got a bit of the flu."

She frowned, but didn't say anything. Instead, she helped him get plates out for the two of them, and took out the contents of the bag. Other than the box from Pizza Hut, she'd brought a couple of light beers, from the kind he had taken the first time they'd gone out. "I think that you have this, right?" she asked, holding the cans up.

"Yup." He said "You're a life saver, Isane-san. I haven't had a decent meal in ages."

"You ought to take better care of yourself, Hisagi-san." Isane stated, sitting herself down on the kitchen chair he'd taken out for her. He paused slightly, thinking that it had been exactly what his doctor had said. Take better care of yourself, and, simultaneously, let others take care of you. You need their support to get through this. Hisagi didn't know whether he wasn't better off taking care of himself, but one thing was certain-have someone fuss over you sure was nice.

It wasn't long before the two of them slipped into a routine conversation, finishing the discussion on Star Trek and moving onto Star Wars. Isane had to admit, with a lot of shame, that she had only seen "Episode One", and by that she meant the new one. Hisagi had a great time acting all shocked, pledging her to see all of the episodes, old and new ones, and if she didn't understand them, to see them again. And so forth, until she finally realized their awesomeness.

Around the end of the dinner, he took out a packet of cigarettes. "Will you mind if I…?"

"Please, this is your house." She gestured "Though I have to say that it's a nasty habit."

"One of many." He sighed, lighting up one and inhaling the smoke slowly "I really have to give them up, but I…" he stopped abruptly, standing up quickly and reaching for an ashtray

"You know what they say, Hisagi-san. To do something, you better start at the beginning, one step at a time…" she said, flushing a little at the mentioning of what he'd said the first time they met

"Let me ask you, do you really want to sell your car?" he turned to her "Or was this just an excuse to come here?"

"Well…it was an excuse, but now that I think about it…" Isane drawled "It's not really my car, it's my parents' car, but I sorta inherited it and…There are a lot of memories connected to it…not all of them bad, but still. I think that it's a pity that I'm not driving it at all. Maybe someone else will make a better use for it."

"Why not drive it? Did something happen to you in it?"

"Actually, yes and no…it doesn't really matter. I just don't want to exasperate myself with all the traffic jams in the city, you know. I have a very stressing job, I don't need to lose my temper in my car too. Besides, I see so many traffic victims that I'm starting to think that people get behind the wheel for the sole purpose of ending up in some sort of accident."

"You shouldn't let your profession take away the pleasures of life. Tell you what…" he stated, throwing the cigarette away "Some weekend, when you have the time, we'll go on a drive out of the city to get your will to drive back. It's a waste, you said it yourself."

"I guess…" she nodded

"I can take a look at it anyway." Hisagi offered quickly "You know, before you sell it, you have to make sure it runs."

"Yeah, I know…I wondered if I could ask you that, but…" suddenly, she got up and gathered up the dirty dishes "I'll wash these for you."

"No need. I can't make my guests do chores, after all…"

"No, I intruded, it's my fault." She said, trying to squeeze past him to get to the sink. Swiftly, one of his hands went over her side and slammed on the bar behind her, stopping her advance. The other moved and took the dishes from her hands. Isane suddenly felt like a caged animal. She also became aware of the proximity between them. His chest wasn't a span away from hers, and without having anything to hold her hands dropped imply on her sides. And if that wasn't enough, his eyes were freely roaming her body, inquiringly, searchingly….It had happened before, when patients were too drunk, or when even she was the one being examined, but this situation was as far from the hospital surroundings as possible. She suddenly felt naked, vulnerable…transparent.

Hisagi's lips quirked into a grin of sorts, and before his brain could command him to do better, one of his hands lay on her hip while the other tipped her head back until she was looking at him straight in the eye. Isane had a weird look about her, as if she doubted his sanity, which was, figuratively, what tipped him off. Slowly, he bowed his head.

An alarm went on in her head, like the siren of the ambulance. He'sgoingtokissmehe'sgoingtokissmehe'sgoingtokissmeHELP. On a physical level and mental level, she was panicking. Her pupils dilated, her palms sweated and her breath ragged, while her heart was beating a thousand miles per second. For the millisecond it too him to make contact with her lips, she became excruciatingly aware of everything about him. And then he gently bit on her upper lip, causing every muscle in her body to contract with surprise, before moving down to kiss her fully.

If Isane was capable of any coherent thought, here are the basic lines on which she would've gone:

_This is weird! What's he doing? He never said he'll be doing that! _

_Something's wrong! Should he be doing that? And what's his hand doing there?_

_Well, it wouldn't be there for too long, since I'm such a terrible kisser. He's probably figured that out!_

_Oh My God! He's kissing me!_

(Un)Luckily, Isane's body knew better than her mind what to do, because while these thoughts moved about her head, she slowly let him coax her into the kiss, opening her lips and moving him gently against his, returning it with equal candor. A step closer, she didn't know who took it, but it happened, to admonish the distance between their bodies, and they were practically vacuumed to each other.

Hisagi let out a sound at the back of his throat, apparently, of approval, because one of his arms wrapped around her waist while the other went under her knee and picked her up to perch her on the bar. Her legs, however, had another thing in mind, because they wrapped against his hips and brought them in until they were being cradled perfectly between hers. All this time, their lips didn't stop moving, and Isane thought off-handedly how this whole thing looked like a dialogue. Both partners moved their lips and bodies to illustrate their thoughts and feelings, only no coherent sound was being made. This was more primal, more private…

Only she never felt anything like this before. Never. She was burning with cold, tasted his fire in his kisses, read his intentions in his roaming hands so easily as if she was completely familiar with him. As if they'd been like this forever, as if they had done this thousands of times until they fit together like two halves of a puzzle, completing each other utterly and transcendentally. And she responded to it with more fire than either thought that she was capable of.

He honestly hadn't wanted to do this. But then again, he never expected her to react so easily, so earnestly, without fear of rejection or false shyness. Could this really be the same woman that blushed and stuttered at every sentence? He had to know. Abruptly, he opened his eyes, met hers, and realized how far he'd gone.

Slowly, his hands fell down from the places they'd been traveling to in order to go on a safer distance. Isane looked at him questioningly, utterly confused.

Hisagi took a deep breath, sighed and unhooked her hands from his neck. They'd been so close…so close…if he didn't open his eyes, he would've probably done something terrible. Carefully, he turned away from her and ran a hand through his hair. Kami, and this is how he usually acted! Unforgivable!

It wasn't until a while did he realize that he was still there. Mercifully, she wasn't perched on his bar, and she had fixed her clothes up, but she was still there. She didn't look angry or indignant, surprisingly, but she was looking at him in such a strange way…Both disappointed, as if she'd somehow expected something like this to happen, and hurt. Hurt and vulnerable.

"What is it?" She muttered.

"Please go." Was all he could say "Please, Kotetsu-san. You have to go."

She paused, opened her mouth, gave up and walked away. He didn't turn away to look at her, but when he heard the front door close and the automatic lock click it shut, he let out the breath he'd been holding and sank to the floor, cradling his head in his hands.

_"Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken?"_

* * *

_A/N_-So what do you think?

_

* * *

_


	5. Stages of love: Anger

**

* * *

**

Stages of love: Anger

Isane wasn't ready to think. As strange as it was, she didn't wish to start analyzing on Hisagi's actions because she knew that if she started, there would be no stopping her. See, she was not a novice in this aspect of relationships, and when her boyfriend told her that he was going to Osaka, she'd spent many sleepless nights wondering why is he doing it, how can she stop him, why and why not, etc. etc., which eventually led her to lose her sleep almost permanently.

Dating Hisagi hadn't removed her sleeping disorder, but it had done something of making things easy for her. Instead of lying awake, analyzing him, she'd been imagining his face, thus hypnotizing herself into a half-slumber, which was better than anything before. Isane wasn't ready to lose this precious little she got out of this relationship by over-analyzing it. She was just not ready for that. In some ways, she was more reluctant to let him go than to wonder why he let go of her, as delusional as this was.

So she did what she did best-she threw herself into work. She covered one shift for Hanatarou and then took on her own busy schedule, putting her insomnia to better use as she treated patient after patient, examined mommies to be and freaked teenagers whose period was late. She listened to the usual stories one hears in the doctor's office, from strange spots on the skin to things getting into orifices they should never get into. It helped her to disregard the mess in her own life by getting caught up in the messes of other people, trying to decide to whom to prescribe sedatives and who didn't need them.

Actually, Isane was pretty proud of herself for not reaching for the meds, even though getting some was probably the easiest thing in the world, when she was a doctor and had access to the hospital pharmacy. The funny part about this wasn't that she refused to take advantage of her position as a doctor because she was afraid of getting caught and charged with drug abuse, resulting in an end of her career, or even because she'd never gotten mad at anyone in her life, let alone done something wrong. No, she simply did not want to think that her hours of rest were artificially induced and therefore-unsatisfying. Shallow, right?

Her reasons were really not that important, when she was so tempted to take pills it was a miracle she hadn't turned into a junkie by now. Coffee had been a comparably innocent addiction, and now that she felt its absence, she couldn't help but feel for Hisagi and his cigarettes.

She paused long enough to let a cart pass her by. The ambulances had been dispatched ten minutes ago, some crazy driver had crashed into a bank. Three different hospitals had engaged on mending the ones that had suffered, sending in a total eighteen ambulances, each of which could carry up to three people. They could get more, because they had enough rooms for everyone who needed to be hospitalized. There weren't any victims reported yet, but there was a steady wave of reporters gathering up around the crash sight.

What was he doing right now, she wondered as she washed her hands and put her hands into gloves. The sirens were wailing somewhere in the distance, they would be there soon. Was he at work, fixing cars, oblivious to everything? Was he with his headphones, The Stones blaring in his ears, or was he smoking pack after pack of cigarettes on his kitchen floor? Was it better if he was turning deaf or getting himself lung cancer over their break-up? Was it even a break-up? Could it be counted as a break-up when she wasn't entirely sure this was a relationship in the first place? They had kissed only once, and since the first meeting, he hadn't been flirtatious at all.

Was it possible that she'd done something wrong? That he, after all the women he'd gone through, knew already by the way they kissed if she would be horrible or amazing in bed? Well, that was perfect, wasn't it?

Just then they wheeled in the ones that had been hurt, and she forgot everything that she'd just thought about.

* * *

"_The results are negative." _Saotome-sensei told him over the phone.

"Hmm…" Hisagi didn't answer, his hands toying with his lighter. Open, close, open, flick, close, open, close, open, flick, close, open, close….

"_That's great, you know."_ He prompted him "_We've ruled out more options, Hisagi-san."_

"Yeah…"

"_Is it me, or do you sound a little down? Did you get sick? Did you lie down like I told you after we took the blood sample?"_

"I did."

"_You sound horrible. Should I come and see how you're doing?"_

"No need. I'm fine."

_  
"You sound like you want to die."_

"Hmm…"

"_Weren't you the one who got freaked out? Weren't you impatient to find out if you're healthy or not?"_

"I still am."

"_Then? Why aren't you happy to know? Even if you are contaminated, the strains we've still got as options are mostly inoffensive."  
_

"Or it could be a new one…"

"_What's wrong with you?!"_

"Nothing's wrong with me." Hisagi groaned "I get it, more options are ruled out, less remain. But, sensei, I've been listening to this same stuff for nearly half a year now. I'm sick of ruling out, for waiting for the next month to know, of shaking like a leaf every time I cough and fear every cut! I'm sick of it all! And just for the record, getting friends around me failed miserably, sensei!"

"_Didn't you say that your friends already know?"_

"Yeah, but I tried making a new friend…"

_  
"That's great. It shows initiative."_ He could nearly hear Saotome sensei nod over the phone

"Bullshit! It failed, sensei, because of my natural urge to bang everything with a XX chromosome! I can't have girl friends, in spite of my best effort! And I can't swallow that, because I just didn't want to lose this damn girl!" Hisagi dug his fingers into his scalp and yanked at his hair "When, sensei? When will I finally be free from this?!"

"_Another month."_ He breathed _"Please don't do anything stupid, Hisagi-san, we've gone this fa…"_ Abruptly, the line became dead

* * *

"Kotetsu-san…." Fujioka Kenji peeked into the examination room, where Isane was finishing bandaging up Matsumoto Rangiku's arm "Ah, there you are!"

"Good day, Fujioka-san." She said, not really looking up at him, ignoring the fact that he'd so conveniently omitted her professional title

"Busy, I see. It's a full house." He laughed

"What can I do for you?" she asked straight away, helping Matsumoto sit down on a wheel chair, then told the hospital attendant to get her to the third floor and put her in a room.

"Are there any more people you need to take care of?" he asked

"I think no." Isane said, but walked towards the reception to check anyways

"In that case, will you please join me upstairs?" a thin smile passed his bloodless lips "I would like to talk to you in private, Kotetsu-san."

"Why not here?" she asked, feeling bold all of the sudden "More ambulances may arrive."

"It won't take long, Kotetsu-san. Please, follow me." He said, walking straight towards the stairs, not leaving her time to recuperate.

If his office was any indication of his professional aspirations, Fujioka Kenji was trying to turn the hospital in one huge rack, full of folders. There was just one chair, and it was behind the desk. She knew for certain that he had chairs brought in for his business associates, but the plebes from the staff were not honored with such a privilege. So much the better, she thought, I'll get out of here soon.

However, he didn't seem to care for that, as he sat down and for the next five minutes proceeded to ask her if she was feeling happy in Tokyo General. Isane, knowing where he was getting at, answered affirmatively and glanced at the watch.

"Well, Fujioka-san…" she finally said "If that is all, I need to return to my patients. I have a pregnant woman waiting for me to inspect her baby…"

"Yamada-san told me that you asked him to cover a shift for you the other night." Kenji shot all of the sudden. Isane blinked, both with shock that Hanatarou would nark on her, and surprise that Fujioka actually went on a check _that_ night.

"Yes, I did."

"Why?"

"I had a personal issue to solve."

"May I ask what?"

Isane gulped, shrinking away from his bottle-green gaze. He didn't blink. Like a prowling snake. "A close friend needed my assistance. It could not be delayed or neglected."

Fujioka sighed. "From what I understand from your fellow doctors, you've recently gotten a boyfriend, Kotetsu-san. A boyfriend that came to see you in working time nearly every day for a week."

"We saw each other in my breaks, Fujioka-san." She said, startled at the course the conversation had taken

"You see, Kotetsu-san, I am not a simple man. I know you've been working here for nearly four years, starting as an intern and then moving into the maternity ward to practice your profession. I saw the records from a while ago and spoke to some of our employees. There is a distinguished period of time at the beginning of your internship that you spend asking people to cover for you, while, according to the staff, you dated someone. Only when you broke up with him did you become the meticulous worker you are now."

Her throat became dry. He'd asked people? As in…gathered gossip? Is this what the board paid this guy for, to dig out the dirt? Oh, she knew who'd sang, all he had to do is find one of the nurses, threaten her with a firing unless she cooperated, and she would tell him everything he needed to know.

"My work has not faltered. My…personal status has not affected it this time." She mumbled

"For now." He pointed out "Kotetsu-san, if you think you will not be able to divide your time between your job and your boyfriend, you should not keep put your patients' lives in danger."

"But…"

"History never lies, Kotetsu-san. Your former relationship slowed your internship by a whole year in untaken shifts."

"Back then it was different. We were both interns. I had to do something to meet him." She said, wondering why she was getting so defensive all of the sudden. Hisagi wasn't probably her boyfriend anymore.

"Still…If you can't handle it…"

Who does that man think he is to tell her this? Who does he think he is to hold her responsible for something that hadn't even happened, for something she was so wholly irresponsible for? Oh, of course, this was not about the patients. Just like it wasn't for the coffee maker itself, just like he didn't use titles, just like he never got sick because if he did he would realize the importance of the people he treated like pawns in his great, capitalistic game of chess. It was all about money, money, money! And since every nurse and hospital attendant he had met had told him what he wanted to know, had given him dirt in return for the preservations of their positions, he was using this dirt in order to get rid of the doctors whose wages were such a problem in the budget.

"I have been working here for four years now. What you are talking about happened over three years ago. I have changed after this. I put my patients first, before everything, and I won't give up on them for anything in the world. Because even if I met this guy, this awesome, great guy, I kept away from him for the sake of my patients, and yet he remained with me until he could handle it. I'm sorry I can't return the gesture, but I can return the commitment. I won't choose between him and my job. If he still wants me that is."

"I don't want to fire you, Kotetsu-san. I never said I would."

"Good. Because I'm not leaving either." She replied and, without further discussion, left the room

* * *

A/N-Well that's that. I'm now 18. I'm officially an old hag now!

Please review. Reviews make me happy. And if I'm happy, chances are there'll be an update soon. So please review!


	6. Stages of love: Bargaining

**Stages of love: Bargaining**

Venting out on Matsumoto-san helped a lot, in spite of the fact that it was wrong. It helped Isane soldier until the end of her shift, although never before had she been waiting in the locker rooms for the clock to strike three in order to break a run for it. It was the first time she didn't stay after her working hours were over. She could consider it an achievement, though it was a little liberating after everything that had passed.

She wasn't worried about getting fired. After all those years she'd spent in Tokyo General, she was damned if she didn't know her rights. They couldn't fire her on account of some assumption when she fulfilled her duties and didn't cause suspicion, but Isane was well aware that Fujioka-san might try the same tactic he had used on Kurosaki Ichigo and many other newly graduated interns-overburden them until they cracked and resigned. But she wasn't quitting. Even though that she was more experienced now and could find a job, she would not break down. Not for something like that.

At least now she knew how reformed criminals felt…in a way. Isane had been around enough sick people, mostly women diagnosed with uterus cancer that were in rehab, that vowed to become better people once they were healthy, but she'd never imagined that making one mistake in the past could turn you into the target of such prejudices, especially after you'd worked so hard to make it up for. And it wasn't like Hisagi-san would turn her away from medicine, or her duty.

That is, if the option of him being her boyfriend still existed. She wasn't even sure whether he was her boyfriend or anything, but Isane wasn't the type of person to let some random person get so intimate with her, even if it was a simple kiss…

A simple kiss that turned her legs into jelly and made her so hot she crouched in the corridor of his building for fifteen minutes until she was capable to settle herself into a semblance of normality. And even now her stomach churned with emotions whenever she thought about him. There was no stopping the thoughts now, Isane sighed as she took the turn that led to the seventh police department. She had to know what the Hell was going on, but if she didn't have the guts to go straight to Hisagi for the answers, she had them to go to someone else.

"Yumi-kun, is Hisagi-san alright?" she asked straight ahead, not bothering with formalities. Yumichika gave her a weird look, before putting away his key-file and crossing his perfect hands in front of himself.

"When you say alright, are you referring to his current state of mind and body, or his state of mind and body usually?"

"Both." She replied, plopping down on a chair next to him. Yumichika sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. People nowadays were so complicated-they made messes they couldn't solve and in the end came to him to help them out of it. If this was what he thought it was, he was going straight to Hisagi and beating him black and blue…well, he'd make Ikkaku do it, at least.

"Well, as far as I know, he's working. He refused to come drinking with us yesterday, but honestly, he's been doing that for quite some time now, so I doubt that it has anything to do with the reason why you're visiting me right now." Yumichika raised an eyebrow "So what DID happen? I don't suppose you'd come all the way here to ask me how he's doing, unless you guys are still on the 'stalker' stage."

"No, we're not." She sighed, fiddling with the hem of her shirt "It's just that…a few days ago, something happened, and I'm not sure whether he wants to see me again."

"Something, Isane-chan?" He gave her a weird look, clearly not getting it. She barely suppressed an urge to bury her head into her hands and groan-going to his buddies for info, how stupid was that?! And to Yumichika of all people, who'd ask her for every embarrassing, excruciating and excruciatingly embarrassing detail. Then again, there was no way out of it now, was there, she thought.

Slowly, she explained everything, from the absolutely innocent dates, through his disappearance, through her going to see how he was doing, to the little…ahem…moment they'd had, just before he'd told her to get out of his home. It wouldn't have been half bad, if Yumichika sat still and listened quietly like people usually did. Instead, he 'ooh-ed' and 'aah-ed' and made her repeat sentences and asked her to tell him word after word what he'd said, what she'd said, etc. etc. It made her remember everything even more vividly than before, more vividly than she wanted to. When she was finally finished, her face was burning up and her stomach was doing a ping-pong routine.

Yumichika sighed, running his immaculately manicured fingers through his hair. "Shuuhei really is stupid." He finally said, before settling back in his chair.

"What? Nothing more?" she asked "Yumi-kun, did I really do something that horrible? Do you think he doesn't want to have anything to do with me now?"

"Isane-chan, relax." He waved his hands in the air in an attempt to calm her down

"But…but…he said get out in such a tone that I…I think he really hates me, Yumi-kun!"

"Isane-chan, please compose yourself." He ordered "It's not beautiful at all, and it's not even worth all the turmoil. Shuuhei is just being an idiot, if there is anyone who should be in pain right now, it's him."

"That's not very comforting. But….if he really doesn't want to see me anymore, I'd really like to know it, before I start pinning over him." Isane sighed "I already can't sleep and my hair is all white, but I'm still worried. Yumi-kun, what's wrong with me?"

"It's not you, I swear it, Isane-chan." Yumichika sighed "But I don't know if I should talk to you about this. Can't you just settle for knowing that it's not you and not put me in this position?"

"You could've lied." Isane pointed out wryly

"But lying is so unbeautiful! Besides…" Yumichika sighed "You know I'll end up telling you anyways. The thing is…" he hesitated "If I tell you, you will most certainly react in a way that will hurt him. Be assured, this has nothing to do with you, or your worth as a person, in fact, I am sure you are exactly the type of company he needs right now, but if I tell you'll try to make things better and he'll feel like he's being pitied."

"Why? Yumi-kun, I can't make out half the things you're saying, how can I tell whether I'll act or not?"

"I'll tell you if you promise to use this knowledge to ease your mind alone. You will not tell him that I've told you, or let him in any way know that you know."

"I can't promise that!" she began

"Thank you, Isane-chan. Now I'm safe." Yumichika breathed a sigh of relief "Now, before I start, let me tell you that Shuuhei is a really nice guy. In fact, very few of the women he's ever dated has ended up really hating him. He's mostly good friends with his exes, some of them even come to him to have their cars repaired…"

"I know." Isane interrupted "He's told me about what happened to him as a child, and how it made him appreciate people for who they are…" she paused, a suspicion dawning on her "Wait, did his tumor come back? Didn't he finish therapy?"

"No, no, it's not his old tumor. He's fine as far as his eyes are concerned." Yumichika paused "However…ugh…"

"What?"

"The thing about girlfriends is that you can't always be on perfect terms with them, especially with your exes. A couple of years ago, Shuuhei was dating this girl, Kotoko, who was generally very pretty, with a good fashion sense and rather handsome income, although she works as an OL….but the point here is that they broke up." He hurried to add after Isane's expression became wary "And the only reason Kotoko broke up with him was because Shuuhei is such a gentleman. Believe me, it wasn't long after they hit it off that he understand that looks and money mean nothing when you can't exchange three sentences with this person, but he didn't want to break her heart after telling her off after the second date…"

"Yumi-kun, don't try to make things like they're not just to spare me. How long did they date?"

"Three months…" he said, a little embarrassed "But believe me, he knew immediately they were not meant to be…almost immediately…well…"

"I get it. But she broke up with him."

"Yes! And he's definitely found better than her since. But the thing is…last March, we all went to a party where we met Kotoko again…actually, he boss was throwing it for the police officers, as a thank-you for protecting the order here…anyways, she and Hisagi sat down for a few drinks on the bar, for ol' times sake, and…err…we lost sight of him. He tells us that he has a blank spot-first minute he was chatting with Kotoko about mutual acquaintances, the next thing he remembers is that he was tied to her bed only in his socks. Though I'm pretty sure it was the drinks, Shuuhei doesn't get that far with a previous girlfriend."

"Yumi-kun…" Isane put her hands up, exasperated "I already know that Hisagi-san has had girlfriends. I really don't want to know all the details, unless it's relevant to the present situation, which is clearly…"

"It is, it is, Isane-chan! Just let me get to that. Anyways, she didn't answer his calls and we suspected that she just wanted to forget about it, but a month later she suddenly appeared again with breaking news!"

"She got pregnant?" she suggested, getting tired with her friend's exuberance.

"I wish!" Yumichika groaned "That would've made things so much simpler. No, that was not what she wanted to tell him. What she wanted all-so-graciously to share with him…" Isane shrank in her seat, already expecting the blow "Was that her latest blood sample tested positive for HIV."

She stared at him. He stared at her. For a while, both were silently listening at the clock.

Tic-tac, tic-tac, tic-tac

……

Tic-tac, tic-tac

…….

Tic-tac

….

Tic….

Tac…

Nope, bracing herself for it had certainly NOT helped at all. Isane still felt like she had been punched in the gut.

"Which strain?" she asked quietly.

"I don't really know." Yumichika sighed "Hisagi told us that she only screamed her head off and tried to blame it on him, but…" the narcissus gave her a weary smile "You can tell that she was obviously lying."

"Yeah…" it takes between three and six months of the contraction for the virus to show on the blood scans, depending on the incubation period. She knew as much, but that meant nothing in the present situation. A quick calculation told her that he probably had it until the end of September to know for sure if he had the virus or not. However…if it was certain whether he was sick or not, he would have told her….not to mention that Yumichika wouldn't be stalling so much. "So he approached me, in spite of the danger, but stopped himself before dragging me in with him."

"He didn't plan to." Yumichika tried defending him "As soon as he found, he renounced the clubbing and women, turned celibate and started going to treatments regularly. You're a doctor, Isane-san, I know how it is on people who could be contaminated. They pump in antibiotics every day, they get shots every week, they go through hell and it might not be enough. Not to mention he lost one month with Kotoko not knowing she was sick. He really took this on seriously."

"I get it. Now that you mentioned it…he disappeared for the first time near the anti-SDT day. Was he getting his test then?"

"Yeah. Poor guy, he gets sick near that time of the month. It didn't have anything to do with you back then. Actually…he did forget the fact that he was sick until your first date. He said that there was a brawl stirring up in the bar and he was going to stop it, when it hit him that he had to be careful not to cut himself. Luckily, you intervened."

"How lucky indeed." She mumbled

"Isane-san, please listen." Yumichika cupped her chin and forced her to look up "He really had no intention to put you in danger. Just…when he met you, he was probably overwhealmed."

"By what? My looks, or my sense of humor?" _My voice?_ She asked herself

"Isane…." He shook his head "You of all people should know that the mistakes that we make in the past do not define us. And luckily for the two of you, love does not come on a first-come, first-served rule. Shuuhei may have had many girlfriends, but he has never cheated on any of them, not one, even when he was tempted to. And as for you, I'm sure this is not the first time you fell in love, so I cannot fathom why you are acting like this."

"You're right, you're right…" she put her hands out defensively "I was just taken aback, that's all. I don't blame him, really. In fact, he wasn't obliged to stop back then. He could've worn a condom, and even not tell me…." She paused "But is he certain that there is any danger? I mean…it's not necessary that he…and she were…not…err…"

"That's what I meant by blank spot, Isane-chan." Yumichika sighed "He doesn't remember anything. Neither what color his shirt was, nor whether they used a condom or a pull, nor why the hell did he even talk to Kotoko when he didn't even like her this much. And neither does she. That's why he's pumping in antibiotics like a maniac and is extra careful with his tools. If he cuts himself, the consequences may be dire."

"Yes…" she paused "And I guess I understand why he was so distant after the first date. But why wouldn't he just tell me instead of pushing me away?"

"He's a guy, Isane-chan. Guys are proud creatures. They don't want girls to think they're some sort of scum that sleeps around, or, better yet-that they would hate them for getting so carried away when they should be more responsible. Besides…" he added "…Shuuhei probably thought that this is none of your business."

"None of my business? He gets his hands under my pants and he thinks this is none of my business?" now she was pissed. Yumichika just grinned sheepishly

"I never said that it was a perfect logic, Isane-chan."

The young woman stared at him, and then got up suddenly. "Thanks, Yumi-kun. I get it now."

"You can't go to him, Isane!" Yumichika shot out, predicting her next move "You promised!"

"I did not, and I most certainly shan't." she replied briskly "If he thinks he can get away with this, he's fooling himself greatly!"

"That's why I was reluctant to tell you!" he groaned "Isane, you just can't go to him and announce that he's acting stupid. That's something guys are supposed to say to girls, not the other way around!"

"Are you trying to tell me that I'm supposed to let this pass? What if I never see him again!?" Isane said, panic rising into her like a tidal wave.

"You have to! Look, I know this is difficult, but you would do him a disservice if you let him know that you're so worried. He acted badly, yes, and he hurt you, but when he did that, I'm sure that he was only acting in your best interest. Ignorance is bliss, Isane, he didn't want to worry you. And besides, what good would your pity do him? He didn't tell his parents, and he barely lets us, his closest friends, help him. One of us always joins him at the hospital for his weekly shot, but that's just about as close as he let us. You're the first person to make him go to a pub, and I swear to you, last time I drove him to his doctor, he was actually smiling! He hasn't smiled like this for months!"

"That's supposed to make me feel better, isn't it?" she asked wryly

"It should. Because it's true. Isane, words cannot describe how positive your relationship has been to him. Just being in your company makes him cheer up, and for the first time he actually looked forward to the treatments."

"How so?"

"Well…his doctor constantly told him that it's important for him to keep a close relationship with somebody, a family member or a friend, so that his attitude remained positive throughout the treatment."

"Patients need a reason to heal…" Isane repeated her old mentor's words dazed "You mean he didn't want anyone near him? He didn't want to get better?"

"Well…he put up with us because we left him no choice, but the truth is, Isane-chan, Shuuhei is pretty rough on himself. He considered this possible illness as some sort of punishment for something he'd done in the past, and he really wanted to suffer it all out alone."

"But that's stupid!"

"I know! But try reasoning with him! He's so thick-headed I'm surprised he's such a smart guy!" Yumichika shook his head "But he really didn't want to risk hurting someone until he was home free. And to be honest, he couldn't really turn to any of his former girlfriends for this kind of support."

"So if his results turn positive, he'll keep regressing, but if they are negative….what? Will he just return to his previous ways?" she asked

"You're making it sound as if he was screwing around, Isane!" Yumichika groaned

"I just…I don't know. What if he really cared for her and that's why they slept together? What if…"

"Isane, believe me, he does not care for her. And even if he did, it's nothing compared to what he feels for you now! You're the reason he wanted to heal!"

She nodded weakly, told him that she wouldn't tell, and walked out of the police station, trying her best to look composed. However, once on the street, her pace slackened, and she finally came to a stop. Looking around, Isane took in the familiar sight-the heated pavement, the cold stone of the street, the steel buildings with the ominous gleam of their windows, and the sad gray of the sky. She often wondered why she wouldn't just go to Osaka to be with Ryuujiro, and always thought that it was because of her job.

It wasn't. She just had gotten addicted to this city, and its ability to attack your senses to the point where you could no longer recognize anything. To the point where you were numb. Usually, she would flutter by, try to ignore the sight and swim on the borderline in an attempt to keep her cool. But the sensations were there, ready to come onto her when she put her guard down…when she needed to drown.

She'd been right. She didn't need to know. But now she did, and wanted to forget. Isane closed her eyes let the crowd engulf her.

* * *

A/N-Compared to the monster I just released on "Simply Irresistible" this chappie is tiny. I still hope you guys enjoyed it, though little happened. Kudos to all of you who stay with me until now.

**Review please!**


	7. Stages of love: Depression

**Stages of love: Depression**

Hisagi watched the sun set over the rooftops, leaning in on the park bench. It had rained for a few minutes today, not so much as to soak up everything, but enough to create a perfect background for him. With his cigarette, dangling from the corner of his mouth, and his messed up hair, he looked like some sort of hermit, but he didn't even bother to do something to ameliorate his appearance. One look at his eyes could tell that, although sane, he was much troubled.

He hadn't moved from this spot ever since Hitsugaya dropped him off, and by the looks of things, he wasn't going anywhere soon. Yumichika and Toushiro had been very particular in their instructions, and he knew that at least one of his friends would be stalking his apartment complex, waiting for him to return. Right now, Shuuhei didn't feel like going back to tell them that he wouldn't do it.

"You got her into this mess, Shuu! You have to make it better! She does not deserve such treatment from you!" Yumichika would say, and quite frankly he agreed with him, but right now, he was still gathering up the courage to walk the fifty meters to the entrance of Isane's apartment complex and ring the needed bell. He was so freaked that his knees were turning into mush at the very thought of him leaving the sanctuary of his post (also, there was a part of him that hoped to see Isane go out to the store, or come back from work, so that he could stage a casual bump-in, although he knew quite well enough that there was going to be nothing casual about their conversation, given the circumstances). Yumichika wouldn't buy that bullshit about the wrong time either, so Hisagi was stuck there, with that cigar leaving a foul taste in his mouth, mulling over what to do or say when the inevitable happened and he faced the music.

Wrong time…it seemed like everything about them was all about the wrong time. Though he was not the kind of guy to believe that stuff about star-crossed lovers and soul mates, Hisagi now knew that they would have met in spite of whatever they did or said. They had what people referred to as "mutual acquaintances"-his friends were best buds with Isane's sister because her boss, Matsumoto-san, had the tendency to attract a lot of stalkers. They also knew Isane, who had treated their wounds once or twice and had a lot of respect for her. Hisagi, on his part, was also good friends with Hitsugaya Toushiro, who was also the boyfriend of the said Matsumoto-san, and if that wasn't enough, the latter was widely known for her borderline matchmaking schemes for her family and friends.

It would've been a matter of time before all those mutual acquaintances put their minds together and decided to try and set them up, or, at least introduce them to each other. Hisagi wondered if he could blame their tardiness or hurry for his current predicament-if only he'd met Isane half a year before, or a couple of months later than he did, none of this wouldn't have happened. If he had a girlfriend at the time, he wouldn't have even gone to that party, or talked to Kotoko, and he definitely wouldn't have let himself get so bloody drunk. And, if he'd met her just a few months later, he would've been able to have a normal romance with Isane, without worrying over getting himself hurt or anything.

But in the end, he couldn't blame it on anyone but himself. If he'd met her half a year ago, he might not have noticed her because back then, his eyes were getting the better of him and his ears did not. The fright he was going through now had him remember the things that Tousen had taught him, things he'd tried so hard to forget since the former swindled a great number of people and ran off to the Bahamas. If it wasn't for that, he wouldn't have seen Isane for the person she was.

And what a person! She was everything her voice betrayed her to be-sweet, kind, a little timid but fierce and passionate when she became more comfortable with her surroundings. The first time he'd heard her voice, he was overcome by the desire to meet that person, and when he did, he was immediately drawn in by that strange mixture of cheekiness and delicacy in her. He reminded himself over and over again that it was not a good idea to judge a book by the cover, which was why he suggested they go out for drinks, but all the time, between her arrival and her leaving the garage, he couldn't stop himself from looking at her figure, whose curves were barely hinted for underneath her flowing t-shirt.

To tell the truth, after she'd left he'd felt a little stupid. Going out of his way to remove the sparking plug from Rangiku-san's car just so that he could have an excuse to see her was not something he did, not for some total stranger, at least. He was looking forward to the night not only because he was attracted to her voice, but also because he was hoping on the inside that some 'getting-to-know-you' time together would demystify her, or at least, demystify all the crap Tousen said about voices defining people. It would be so damn easy to ignore her and forget about all the bullshit that had gone through his head in the few hours before their date if she turned out to be boring, selfish or at least self-centered…

But she wasn't.

Holy shit, she wasn't! In fact, Hisagi felt half-giddy, half-embarrassed for even supposing that she was anything less than the beautiful person she was. At first, she seemed relatively simple-she liked her job, but she was not as ambitious as the rest of her peers, frankly because she had so much of it that it was sometimes too much. She was not very-self aware either, probably an expected consequence of the said job, which he found endearing, and, later on, he actually felt grateful for it. Insecurity practically streamed off her and, since men did smell fear, he was sure that if it wasn't for his presence, some jackass would have probably forced himself on her, and she wouldn't have been able to tell them off. This strange protectiveness/possessiveness had developed somewhere between them seeing Ikkaku, Iba and Yumichika, and the almost-brawl she luckily stopped in the making.

And if that wasn't enough, she had become, in a matter of hours, not only the most interesting person in the world, but also the most reliable one. He'd told her why he was so attracted to her, about the tumor operation that he'd had as a child, the same tumor that had left him blind for so long, and, indirectly, about Tousen, who'd taught him so much, and who Hisagi loved almost like a father before he turned into a jackass. Shuuhei had never done so much in an entire relationship, let alone on a first date. Women, he reasoned, were attracted to the slightly broken type, but didn't particularly care about the reasons for this state. Which was fine with him, since he wasn't a sharing person in the first place.

But Isane was different. And he would be damned if he didn't know why she was so different. He'd been in love before, but admitting it now was equal to suicide. After kissing her first and then telling her off, both for no relevant reason whatsoever, he'd be lucky if she even wanted to listen to him, and he was pretty sure that rejection right not would be what did him in.

Honestly, he didn't mean to kiss her. He planned just to smile at her, poke her nose maybe, tease her because he was feeling playful that night, but hell…all playfulness had flown out the window when he came so close that their bodies were almost touching, enough to hear her whisper in that seductive voice (not because she wanted to be seductive, no less, but because she probably didn't see the need to shout). After she left, he hadn't been afraid to close his eyes, lest his old nightmares return.

How much longer would he be able to take this?

Stratovarius were blasting "I surrender" in his ears, and he couldn't help but wonder if this was some sort of sign from the above. _Alright_, he thought, turning off the iPod and crashing the cigarette against a near trashcan, _if this is how it's going to be, I might as well go for it now._

* * *

Isane groaned and shoved her face straight into the pillow.

"It'sh howt!" came her muffled groan

"What was that, Nee-san?" Kiyone chimed in, appearing on the threshold.

"It's so damn hot! Why is it so hot?!"

"It's "La Perla", nee-san, of course it's hot!" Kiyone pointed out flatly, fixing the cups of her midnight blue bra for emphasis. It took Isane some time to register what she had said, and a little more to realize that her sister was talking about underwear, not the weather.

"Have you been shopping?" she finally said, sitting up in bed and eyeing her sister speculatively. Kiyone laughed and made a little turn before slipping into her little black dress.

"Yup! A little gift from me to me for my new promotion."

"Is there really a way for you to get promoted?"

"As long as she can give me a bonus to my pay, Rangiku-san says, I can always be promoted." Kiyone beamed "So I got this cute little number today. I'm really glad she and Hitsugaya-kun got together."

"So do I." Isane smiled, albeit weakly.

"Which reminds me, sis, your birthday is coming up. Next weekend, you're coming with me to Asakusa and we'll pick you something from the same shop as I picked mine!" she chirped.

"Kiyone-chan, you know I don't want anything for my birthday."

"But you're turning twenty-eight! How often does THAT happen?!"

"After you hit twenty-five you only celebrate the ones with a zero or a five in the end." Isane argued, although she knew well enough that it was a lost battle. Kiyone just brushed the comment off and said that she'd kick her out of bed early in the morning so that they could go out before it got too hot, before heading for the door. Isane waited to hear it close, before she sighed and dropped face first into the mattress.

There was really no point in arguing with Kiyone when it came to shopping, but Isane had always prided herself by managing to stay away from such events as much as possible. She really shouldn't have taken notice, but…

Damn it, it was no use! She'd just HAVE to go. Not that she disliked it, and she could really use some new clothes…but how did things end up like this? She was living in her little sister's flat, she was celebrating her sister's promotion by going out on a shopping spree where her sister would be paying…It wasn't the way things were supposed to be!

_But what am I saying_, Isane thought, _I should be happy for her. After all, she deserves it! She works so hard, and on top of all she's great friends with Rangiku-san and all her colleagues…._

However, that only depressed her even more. Sure, she was happy that Kiyone was getting ahead in life without her help, but she couldn't help but feel the…well…irony of the situation. She'd been the one that had gone to college, studied medicine, and worked like some sort of criminal to make up for some past mistake or another. She'd taken almost twice the time for usual internship because of all the time she'd wasted because of her…former boyfriend. Now, she was twenty-seven, with twenty-eight staring her right in the face, a payment that was in radical inverse proportion to her working hours, and she was yet to become promoted or anything on the lines of professional achievements.

And her love life achievements were even worse! She honestly envied Kiyone! Her little sister got on so well with everyone she didn't need to worry about finding a boyfriend, even if she'd just lost one. Carefree and easygoing, she was the epitome of happiness, and she never let anyone bring her down. In sharp contrast, Isane was so shy she barely exchanged a few words with her colleagues, and she was so afraid of losing a boyfriend that she didn't even dare find one.

Going on that topic does me no good, Isane mumbled to herself, reaching for a textbook from her nightstand. Flipping it open on Auto-Immune diseases, she started reading through it, hoping that it might help her deduce whether Hisagi-san had a nasty strain or not. That is, if he was sick, of course. Probably, after a few weeks, he'll get the results that tell him that he's completely healthy! Yeah, of course, how can there be any doubt! Hisagi-san was such a gentleman he remembers to put on a condom even when he's totally shit-canned and can't remember anything else.

Tee-hee-hee…

"This is stupid!" Isane yelled at the wall, slamming her fist into the mattress, before letting her body fall back down "It's too hot…" She mumbled weakly "I can't think…"

She sighed, wondering whether it would be a huge giveaway if she called Hisagi now. She wouldn't be able to control her emotions, and he would definitely know that she'd found out about his scare, and would be angry with her. Guys were like that-they bottled things up and got mad because someone tried to help them. Honestly!

But…she couldn't help but admit that the situation she was in was difficult. She couldn't call him to straighten things out-he'd see right through her. But she also couldn't move on with her life, as if nothing had happened, and pretend to be normal while waiting for something or nothing to happen. Even now, instead of reading something interesting or breezing through some silly program, she was trying to figure out what possible strains of HIV might he have if he was sick. She couldn't possibly understand what good the knowledge would do her, as it obviously couldn't do him any good. And when Isane tried to calm herself, saying that Hisagi-san was a very responsible man, she had to take extra care not to try and imagine him going at it with his former girlfriend.

What would she be like anyway? Definitely hot, that was for sure. Probably had long legs and fantastic black hair, surely a traditional beauty, one of the kinds that you like to look at but you rarely touch because they look invincible. It was definitely far away from the stereotype image of a party girl that everyone sported nowadays, but Isane imagined that Hisagi would probably go for a girl who looked harder to reach.

Just then, she felt a quiet puff of air and somebody placed a wet towel over her calves. Starting, she leapt up and turned, coming face to face with a rather embarrassed Hisagi.

"You! What are you….?!" She said, looking at the door and then back at him and then at the door again.

"Sorry." He put his hands up apologetically "I heard you say you're hot and I always knew that this is a good remedy against heat waves." They stared at each other "Are you better? I should've asked if I could come in, but Kiyone-chan just told me to go right ahead…" Isane was still staring at him, making him add quickly "…And I guess I shouldn't have taken up her offer so literally. Did I scare you? I know that's to be expected, but…err…you never struck me as the one to scare easily…but then again…" he rambled on "…There's probably a difference between a bar brawl and semi-stalking, so I'll just walk out of here before I cause any more confusion."

"Err…you can do that…" Isane hit herself mentally. Even in her ears that sounded lame.

"But I'm not leaving. I'll ring like any sane person would, you'll ask who it is, I'll answer honestly and you'll decide whether you'll let me in or not. If you don't want to talk to me right now, I can wait…by the door…or out of the building, if that makes you feel better. I can wait until you feel like talking, but I won't leave until we do."

"If that's the case, then it's pretty pointless to go out." She said, actually finding her voice for the first time in some days now. "Sit down, Hisagi-san. I'll go make some tea."

"No, no thanks…and that's alright. I can stand, you don't need to make me any tea and…well, that's irrelevant right now, right?"

"I don't know. Is it?" she said, sitting on her bed, a little too aware that her tank top and shorts weren't exactly the best thing she could've worn, but it wasn't like she expected him to come anyways.

"It's not. At least in the moment. Later on, I might…" he groaned and then said "Let's try again. I…err…wanted to talk to you…about what happened, obviously." Isane nodded, wondering how the hell was she supposed to react to this news. In the few hours after Yumichika had seen her out of the police station, her mind had been mostly preoccupied by thoughts on how hard this whole ordeal had been for Hisagi. She hadn't particularly envisioned how their meeting would go, if there really was one. A part of her reminded her that, for the sake of his pride, she should really try and act like she didn't know anything, although only God knew that she was like an open book to anyone-even perfect strangers. Maybe she had to look indignant or impatient, but it was a little too late for that.

She settle for silence, making him a little weary of her. "Well…I guess there's really no way I can worm my way out of this one…I deserve it, actually, I've been relying on luck for a long time now. I can't really do anything that would save both me and my relationship with you…"

"You know…" she stated "You're obviously having issues here, so if you're not ready to talk about it, I can wait too…"

"No, you can't. I won't have you wait for an explanation…although…" he smiled, looking over at her book "I can see that you already know."

Isane flushed and quickly slammed the huge tome closed, before holding it to her chest. It was a little too late to hide her read from him, but this came with a bonus-the large book almost covered her up entirely, hiding her from him. It gave her a sense of protection, although she was well aware that if he tried removing the book she would be able to stop him.

"What are you talking about?" she said, forcing the fear in her voice to sound more like indignation than anything else.

"Yumichika told me he told you, Isane-san. About the…HIV." He almost choked on the words, but managed to look rather amused at it "He told me to get my lazy ass over here and tell you how things stand before you ran away from me."

"He didn't say that!…" She exclaimed, folding her hands in front of the large book she held, making it slip towards her lap by an inch or so.

"You're right. He never uses the word ass, but I'm pretty sure he meant that when he said that I stop moping around."

"…And besides, I'm not going anywhere!" she said, setting the book aside to struggle to the edge of the bed and stand up on the same level as him. Now there, her height was finally doing her some good. She was probably the first girl he didn't have to bend over to look in the eye, she thought with a sort of detached pride as she went on "Although I'm pretty sure my boss is setting his sights on firing me, I'm not planning on leaving Tokyo, or this place. Was Yumi-kun being overly dramatic again?"

"If he wasn't, he wouldn't be Ayasegawa Yumichika now, would he?" Hisagi laughed, happy for the distraction "However, it's not him we're talking about. It's about you, me and the fact that I didn't tell you I might have a deadly disease."

"Well, you obviously weren't ready to tell everyone about it, Hisagi-san." She said, and then regressed quickly "I mean…ugh…Yumi-kun told me that even your family doesn't know about this, and you're keeping your closest friends at a distance ever since you were told you might have it…I know that we…err…went a little far the last time we met, but I'm far from being the sort of person you can confide that sort of thing into." In a sudden rush of boldness, she reached out and placed her hand on his shoulder, coaxing him into sitting on the edge of her bed along with her, as her room was painfully deprived of furniture. "You shouldn't tell me out of obligation, especially when this makes you feel uncomfortable."

For a few seconds, he regarded her, and Isane felt rather painfully aware of the way his eyes were drilling into hers. She made a move to pull her hand away, but his larger palm closed over it and held it in place, the tips of his fingers rubbing lightly along the skin of her knuckles.

"Yumichika has been jabbering about my pride, hasn't he? He should know that after so much time, he shouldn't press this bullshit on people." He chuckled

"Well…" She scoffed "I can see his point, to some extent. And he asked me not to use the information he was giving me for anything other than my own comfort. It was selfish and impatient of me to go to him, I admit, and I got what I deserved. I wasn't ready to receive such news. However, that doesn't mean I'm mad at you or anything. If the situations were reversed, I would have reacted the same way."

"No, you wouldn't." He said, squeezing her hand until it was almost painful "You wouldn't because I wouldn't let things hang like that. I wouldn't have listened to you if you told me to leave you alone, because it'd be clear that you're in pain. But, before all, you wouldn't be as weak as to let a sudden spur of the moment put people in danger like I did. But…" he pressed on, ignoring her sputtering protest "…that has nothing to do with what Yumichika told you. After all this time, I've realized that pride is highly overrated. Yes, I admit, I wasn't very enthusiastic to receive people's pity, because you get either that or fear when you tell somebody, but the truth is, I didn't want to pull the people I care about in the mud with me."

"You…didn't want people to get involved?" she stared at him, dumbly. Obviously, since she was used to intervening all the time, this was a novelty "Why?"

"Why? Isane-san, you're a gynecologist and you don't know why? You see what people with incurable diseases go through. They're either so depressed they lose their will to live, or, even better, get mad at the world because of what happened to them. Even if they don't want it, they lash out on their friends and family, people who only care for their well being and only want to help. So I decided that suffering in silence was what I should do best." He laughed darkly, finally letting her pull her hand away "I gotta tell you, the last time we met…even after I jumped you like that, I still thought I was able to keep you away from all this, to keep a distance. But…I was wrong. I took Yumichika and Toushiro to tell me this, but I realized that I couldn't keep you away."

"Toushiro? You mean…Hitsugaya Toushiro? Matsumoto-san's…"

"Yup. He called while Yumichika was having his way with me. Told me that you had broken down in front of Rangiku-san and if I sported the tiniest bit of respect towards you, I should come here and apologize."

"Sorry. I put you in an embarrassing position." She said, punching herself for not knowing any better than to drop her guard around a patient who knew Hisagi-san already.

"Though he didn't know the half of it…" Hisagi explained "He made a valid point. I couldn't pretend that I didn't get you involved in this, and I had to decide quickly. I decided that I should try and apologize now, because God knows what will happen if I fool around for too long."

Isane sighed. "You either think too little of me or too highly of yourself, Hisagi-san. Don't you think for a minute that if I didn't want to get involved I wouldn't have let you?"

"That's a difficult question." He said "Do you really want me to answer?"

"Well…" she gestured around herself, obviously saying 'Gimme your best shot'.

"While I'm painfully aware of the fact that you're very independent, Isane-san, and you're also very well aware of your wishes…" he put his best efforts into not making it sound like some sort of sarcasm "…However, I also know what I want. And I also know that if you hadn't come to pick that car up a month ago, we still would've met somehow, and then, believe me or not, I'd go through whatever it took to make you fall for me. It's instant attraction, Isane. You can't deny it."

"I'm not…" she drawled "But still…you're making it sound like this is all happening whether I like it or not."

"Isn't it? I never said that it's all happening according to my wishes, though that's also possible."

"Oh, we think highly of ourselves, don't we?" she joked, but her laughter died in her throat when Hisagi turned fully towards her, then slowly moved forward, no gliding, but prowling towards her. Isane's superior brain functions died temporarily, and it could only do as much as to order the required muscles to help her move away from him, although God knew, she was a lot more hesitant than him. His moves were bigger and more pronounced, and she, in an attempt not to touch him, shrank underneath his frame, leaving him to hover mere inches away from her face. It was then that her hand fell over the opposite edge of her bed, having her upper body fall down with it. She would've probably banged her head against the floor, if it wasn't for his hands wrapping around her waist and shoulders, pulling her flush against his chest, back into a steady position.

"Well, I guess you certainly proved me wrong!" she giggled, but the sound came out fake in comparison to the wild booming of her heart. Was it really possible for a human being to feel another's warmth so…distinctly? Even through the thin cotton of their clothes, his skin was burning her. Hisagi sighed into her hair, and for a split second she swore he pecked the top of her head, but then he pulled reluctantly away, putting some reasonable distance between them. However, some part of him loathed to leave her, because she was still sitting between his knees, his palms resting warmly over her hips.

"But you see what I mean." He said, exasperated "I almost hurt you and we didn't even touch."

"Well, good thing I'm a doctor, I can patch myself up. Both literally and figuratively." She said, folding her arms again, although that was a pretty deniable gesture when she was practically in his arms. "Hisagi-san, I'm not a child. If you can't let me take the fall, then what kind of a one-sided friendship would we have."

"I just care for the health and well-being of my girlfriend. Is that so wrong?" he asked, dark eyes drilling into hers. Isane's hands fell, as her jaw hung loose.

"No, but…"

"But what?"

"You just said girlfriend. Who?"

"You, of course."

"Whose?"

"Mine."

"You're really contradicting yourself. You said that what's happening is beyond us, yet you decide things all by yourself so easily!"

"I'm not. You're just more in denial than I am." Hisagi cupped her face "What made you think that you're not my girlfriend? Don't you feel something towards me?"

"Of course I do! More than you can imagine! Why do you think I'm trying to go about this with so much tact? I'm so freaked out that I might lose you that I'm trying my best not to push you away!"

"You don't have to do anything. Then what is it? Did I not make you feel like you are loved?"

She blushed several shades of red "Not exactly, but…Ugh…you never put it in so many words."

"Pardon, Isane, but aren't women the experts on reading men? I think I was pretty obvious."

"Well, we wouldn't always question everything if men weren't so damn enigmatical. Besides, when you…told me to leave after we kissed, I thought that you didn't like something about me."

"Now you know the truth, though." He stated calmly, his eyes not leaving hers for a minute while he carefully closed the distance between their faces until they were a breath's away from each other. "And you're not running away…Why?"

"Obviously because I'm not running anymore. I don't hate you, I'm not mad at you…yeah, I'd never had gathered up the guts to come to you, but that's because I'm a coward, Hisagi-san…"

"Shuuhei."

"Huh?"

"That's the thing I wanted to tell you when we first talked. Call me Shuuhei. I already call you Isane, it's not fair that you address me by my name like that."

"Shuuhei." She mumbled, as if unaware how to react to the mixture of syllables in her mouth, and finally smiled. He also grinned, and stroked her cheek with his thumb.

"And you're not a coward."

"But…"

"Stop underestimating yourself." He ordered firmly, before covering her lips with his, lest she spoke again. Isane complied, arching her back as she wrapped her hands around him, closing the distance between them once again. This time, there was no restriction, no fear, no reserve…it felt safe, as much as it was warm, and this time, he also gave in, giving his all into the kiss, proving to her once more that it can be better and better, every single time. In fact…if Kiyone hadn't come back, half-driven by the rain outside, half-curious, and interrupted them, who knows where they would have gone?...

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**A/N-Hold on folks, there's still more chappies to this fic, unlike Simply Irresistible. Ah...now the roles are reversed. This is the gigantic chappie, and the epilogue is the dwarf...oh, well....I hope that those of you who read the spinoff have also read the fic, because now I won't be waiting to write both chappies before releasing them...hopefully, my muse won't abandon me for the next four chappies or so, but we'll see. **

**Review! I love reviews! They make me feel...tingly!**


	8. Acts of Affection

**Sorry if this chappie took so long to write, I was sorta blocked. Didn't turn out how I expected it to be, but I'm still content with it. **

**Please read and review and take a look at the author's note this time-it's important.**

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Acts of affection

Isane skimmed through her list of patients, pleased to see that there weren't emergencies. She was thus happy to go around slowly, showering all the people with her affection and renewed cheerful view of the world. By the time she was finished with the round, the entire world was pink and little hearts of laughter were flying around. Wasn't this a wonderful world?

Alright, so maybe that was slightly exaggerated, but she was insanely happy. She didn't know how that happened, but apparently, love made people stupid and giddy, even in the worst times. Like right now-she was working through another exhausting shift, with Fujioka hot on her heels, just waiting to catch her slacking off to fire her, and she felt like a teenager trying her first prom dress on and discovering that she looked absolutely amazing.

She was just finishing up when Ikkaku burst through the ER doors, dragging behind him a rather annoyed looking Hisagi. Luckily, she was out in the corridor and the bald man didn't have to look for her for too long. "Isane-san, quickly! We need to save this dope's life!"

"Ikkaku-san, please don't yell!" she ordered, while flashing Hisagi a nervous smile. He grinned back when she came up to them. "Now what is the matter?"

"This guy just cut himself!" Ikkaku exclaimed, pointing towards the bloodied gauze wrapped around Hisagi's left arm. Isane blinked a couple of times, before ushering them quickly into one of the examination rooms and pulling the curtain.

"How did this happen?" she asked, all playfulness vanishing from her tone while Hisagi sat down on the cot. He started removing the makeshift bandage while Ikkaku moved around like a frightened mother.

"I don't know. First I was there, talking to him about pimping my car up a bit, and then the next thing I know, this guy was cursing like a sailor and blood was everywhere!"

"It's nothing serious, just lost control over one of the tools for a moment." Hisagi groaned, shooting his friend death glares while Isane donned a pair of clean gloves and a new overcoat.

"Alright, let me see it." She ordered, motioning him to give her his arm. The palm was covered in blood, but other than one gush she couldn't distinguish other injuries. "Looks like I'll have to stitch this up. What did you do with the power tool?"

"Threw it away, duh!" Ikkaku exclaimed, earning himself a kick from Hisagi

"Nothing major, Isane. We did throw it away, and we managed to wipe the mess off before he ushered me here." He let out a tiny smile "Don't worry, it'll heal."

"Looks deep. On a scale of one to ten, how much does it hurt?"

"Umm….eight?"

"I may have to make a multi-layer closure. Ikkaku-san, would you like to go and take care of the paperwork at the reception. I'll be done here in a few minutes." The bald man hesitated, before he gave the open would one last look and scurried away. Isane chuckled.

"How did you know he couldn't handle blood?" Hisagi asked, incredulous, as she produced spirits, cotton and a handful of things he couldn't recognize. Isane gave a non-chalet shrug as she started cleaning up the spot.

"Lucky guess. I suppose that you wouldn't like to have him hang around over each move I make, wouldn't you?" She smiled, and then eyed the now clean palm carefully. "You really did pull a number on yourself. I'll never complain about you listening to music while you work, it keeps you from guys like Ikkaku distracting you."

"Yeah, well…" he drawled with a nervous laugh "I confess I wasn't listening to him…not in particular."

"No?" She blinked when Hisagi leaned in closer to her "What were you thinking of then?"

"You…" he whispered in her ear. "You do realize my last check up is in less than two weeks, no?" Isane nodded stiffly, cheeks going red with the sudden embarrassment "I may be pushing my luck here, but I was thinking about what I'd like to do with you once the results are out."

"Oh, really?" she quirked an eyebrow "And just what did you have in mind, Shuuhei?"

"The usual." Hisagi shrugged casually "Scrabble, cards, dinners at my place, since your sister obviously wouldn't want to put her social life on hold because of you."

"That never stopped her." Isane rolled her eyes, although her cheeks went pink when she remembered Kiyone walking in on their little make-out session after having returned home with her boyfriend. Some people were just plain lucky, she thought morosely. "And I don't see why we can't do any of those things before your blood work comes out. Cards seem fun and I happen to be good at scrabble."

"Not in the way I'm imagining them." He gave her a little wicked wink, which left no doubt about how he was seeing those games working out. "And as for dinners…you do remember how the last one we had turned out."

Isane snorted as she dug for the things she would need to stitch him up. "If I'm not mistaken, that was last week and I didn't know anything then. If I did know that you were so uncomfortable with physical proximity, I wouldn't have provoked you."

His ears perked up at that and he didn't even notice that she had started sewing the wound together, because he started indignantly: "Provoked me? If I'm not mistaken, I was the one pinning you to that counter while assaulting you like some fourteen-year old. Sure you pushed past me, but it doesn't necessarily mean that when you're close to a guy he has to grab you and snog the hell out of you. Besides…ouch, that stings…besides, I never said I was uncomfortable with physical proximity."

"You don't like losing control." Isane countered, the top of her head bobbing slightly when she said that "You didn't do anything to me, and yet you would beat yourself up over something that didn't happen instead of talking it over." She looked up and smiled at him devilishly "Maybe I shouldn't have tempted you if I knew this would happen."

"So I'm emo now?" he pouted like a toddler and she leaned over to peck his nose

"Yes, you are." She fixed the knot. "Alright, I'm done with the stitches. Let me just wrap it up in a clan bandage and…"

"Done?" Hisagi exclaimed, looking at his hand with bewilderment "Wow, Isane, you're amazing. I barely felt anything." He leaned in to examine the closure more carefully "They're so even. You're a magician!"

"Now, now, it's the practice." She replied evenly, though a frown creased her brows as she wrapped his hand in gauze

"What's the matter?" he asked

"Nothing." Isane beamed. "Alright, so there's just one more thing I have to do and I'm letting you go."

"What?" he asked, and then blanched then he saw her pull a syringe out of it's package "What? No, Isane, you can't be serious."

"What do you mean I can't be serious?" she looked at him with confusion, all the while putting the needle on. His face turned ashen gray when she turned around to fill it with some liquid

"I feel fine, I don't need a shot." He mumbled weakly when she finished, making sure that there was no air in the syringe

"Shuuhei, you cut yourself with something that goes into engines." Isane scolded him, but for his sake angled her body so that he didn't see it "Please, you can get an infection on top of all and you know how important that is. None of the antibiotics you're taking will bode badly with it, so just let me inject you and…" her voice trailed off when Hisagi's face turned positively green "Shuuhei, this is serious, and you just suffered a multi-layer closure. How can you possibly be afraid of a shot?"

He shook his head again, looking much like a dejected little boy. She had to stop herself from laughing. "Alright then, close your eyes and grip the edge of the bed. Think about pleasant things."

Hisagi grumbled, but finally closed his eyes and grabbed the side of the cot as instructed. Isane took a moment to look at him as she reached for a piece of cotton to disinfect the spot on his arm. He was frowning hard, looking both concentrated and worried, as if he was trying hard not to throw up. She sighed-he really was such a crybaby. She started humming a tune while her thumb rubbed the skin of his forearm, relaxing the muscles, before she quickly rubbed some spirits into it. Then, quickly, to get it over with, the found the vein and plunged the syringe in, putting the vaccine in before pulling the needle out.

Isane looked up to see him looking at her, his face conflicted, but luckily, he didn't look like he wanted to be sick anymore. Shuuhei looked almost…relaxed.

She blinked, trying to stop herself from being dazzled and quickly threw the used syringe in the bin. "Alright, you're all set. I'll prescribe some antibiotics, just in case, but you'll need to call your doctor to double-check if they are fine with the ones you're currently receiving. You should try to keep the spot from becoming dirty, and it would be best if you took the rest of the day off. Just relax, I'm sure that the boys in the garage will handle it without you. So…err…your wound should be better in another week, you could come around so that we remove the stitches…"

"Great." Hisagi smiled, stopping her in mid-rant "You really are great, Isane."

"T…thanks…" she flushed, and scribbled the prescription down, before tearing it off (with much more force than she intended) "S…so…the bandage should be changed every few hours, so…err…I guess you don't need me to tell you that…umm…"

"Actually, I kinda do." He said. She looked up

"Huh?"

"I'm afraid I'm horrible with bandages." Hisagi went on, patting his chin with his forefinger "I've never been able to wrap myself up."

"Well…ugh…it's not rocket science…" she shrugged

"Here's an idea, how about you come at my place tonight, to fix the gauze? Since you're not afraid of dinner either, we can order pizza, or I can cook something."

"Cook?" she blinked

"Yes. I make amazing pasta…and I promise you, I cannot possibly give you any food poisoning. I'm an expert of warming food out of a can and then dumping it on boiled spaghetti."

"Well, with an offer like that, how can I refuse?" she laughed easily "Then I'll come by after work?"

His entire face lit up, causing her to smile immediately in response.

"Great. I'll be waiting for you." He grinned broadly, all worry about the shot gone as he bounded out of the room and waved at her, before grabbing Ikkaku from the reception and dragging him out.

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By the time she was at his door, the happiness was fully replaced by a very characteristic fit of panic. She'd managed to get out of work on time, racing to her place to take a shower and change clothes and go to his neighborhood. Isane had managed somehow not to freak out over her dress, restraining herself from putting on her best clothes and going overboard with her make up. Her hair was still a little damp from the shower and she was now figuring out that it wasn't the best of ideas, because it was bound to look like a haystack.

Isane took a deep breath. It was going to be fine, she told herself, Shuuhei wouldn't do anything that would put her in any danger. He'd rather cut his hand off than hurt her. Not that he would ever need to do that. But still…that didn't mean that they completely had to keep their hands to themselves…oh, wait, it did…

Never mind. She took a breath to brace herself and rung. Before her hand was down the door flew open and she was met with a grinning Hisagi. "Took you long enough." He laughed, grabbing her through the waist and ushering her inside.

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**A/N-Christmas/Easter Contest Countdown**

**So my friend Kristine and I decided to do a little fic challenge. Do you like writing? Do you love it? Are you ready for a challenge? Then join us on "From Christmas to Easter, let's write stories!" forum, where rules and everything is currently explained. They can be reached through the 'My forums' thread on my profile page, or the following url**: www(dot)fanfiction(dot)net/myforums/Five_seas/1426411/ **If it is displayed that is. Have fun and please join us on our quest to make this fandom richer by a few fun stories.**

**Oh...and review!**


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